REED ARVIN

After a successful career as a musician and record producer, Reed Arvin holed himself up in a Myrtle Beach condominium and determined not to leave until he had finished his first novel. That book, THE WILL, began a career that now includes three novels published around the world in many languages. Reed has received a string of accolades from The New York Times to People magazine; the Chicago Tribune stated Reed "writes smart and exciting legal thrillers as well as anyone now working." Reed was a Booklist 2007 "Rising Star", and his novel BLOOD OF ANGELS was rated the No. 2 crime novel of 2006. Reed Arvin grew up on a working cattle ranch where he baled hay, harvested wheat and learned to despise cattle, which he calls "good for nothing but steak." Reed has given up NutraSweet but not caffeine, and now crams as much iced tea into his body as possible. He lives with his wife, the painter Dianne Arvin, in Nashville, Tennessee.
Website: reedarvin.com
"Arvin writes in an effortless style, with talent to burn." - Denver Post
"Exceptionally clever ... devious, adrenaline-boosting suspense." - New York Times
"Pure Suspense." - Boston Globe

NANCY JAMAL BARA

Nancy Jamal Bara is a Crime Scene Supervisor for the Wichita Police Department Crime Scene Unit (CSI). She has an M.A. in Anthropology from Wichita State University and has been with the Police Department since 2000.

DARYL & J.J. BUGNER

Daryl Bugner, private investigator, is the owner of ICU Detective Agency, based out of Wichita, Kansas. The business was established in 1995 and is licensed in Kansas and Oklahoma. He graduated from Wichita State University 1983 with a B.S. degree in Administration of Justice, specializing in investigations. Daryl has approximately 10 years of law enforcement experience and surveillance experience, including: civil/criminal/domestic investigations, background checks, locate/skip tracing, process service and workplace violence.

Jennifer "J.J." Bugner, Daryl's wife, has been a licensed private investigator (Kansas) for the past 5 years. J.J. has a B.S. degree in family sciences from Emporia State University with a minor in business. All of J.J.'s private investigative experience has stemmed from actual hands-on training in the areas of surveillance, skip tracing, locates, process service and background investigations.

ELIZABETH K. BURTON

Elizabeth K. Burton is an author, editor, and the executive and acquiring editor for Zumaya Publications LLC and its speculative fiction imprint Zumaya Otherworlds. A native of Pennsylvania, she currently thrives in beautiful Austin, Texas. An avid reader since she first memorized the words in her Little Golden Books, she has been a finalist in the Writers of the Future for her short story "Simple Sarah and Slippery Sam" and is the author of two novels and a novella set in her alternate world of Karlathia: DREAMS OF DARKNESS and THE UGLY PRINCESS from Zumaya Publications and "The Loremaster" from eXtasy Books. She has two additional erotic romance titles at eXtasy: "The Sorcerer's Apprentice: Major Arcanum IV, The Emperor" and "Remembered Glory: 6 of Cups."

CAPT. BRAD CRISP
& JODIE

Capt. Brad Crisp (IAAI-CFI, CFEI, Fire/Arson Investigator, Fire Investigation Unit Commander) is a 17-year veteran of the Wichita Fire Department. He has spent the last 11 years in fire prevention, as an inspector, public educator and fire investigator, and investigated over 600 fires. Capt. Crisp has an M.A. degree in criminal justice and over 1,200 hours of training in fire investigation. He is an adjunct instructor for the Butler Community College Fire Science Program, and an Accelerant Detection Canine handler for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. He is also certified through the International Association of Arson Investigators, the National Association of Fire Investigators as a Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator, and the International Fire Code.

Jodie, an 8-year-old Labrador Retriever, is trained and certified by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives as an Accelerant Detection Canine (ADC). Jodie is assigned to Capt. Crisp.

LEE LOFLAND

Lee Lofland is the author of POLICE PROCEDURE AND INVESTIGATION: A GUIDE FOR WRITERS from Writers Digest Books. Lee is a former police detective with nearly two decades of law-enforcement and crime-solving experience. He was in charge of major felony cases, including homicide, narcotics, rape, kidnapping, ritualistic and occult crimes, fraud and robbery. Lee is a nationally acclaimed expert on police procedure and crime-scene investigation and also a consultant for many best-selling authors and television and film writers, and he writes and maintains the popular blog site The Graveyard Shift. Lee recently appeared as an expert on a BBC television documentary called "How To Commit The Perfect Murder." His current works in progress are a mystery novel and a children's book titled EVERYTHING KIDS: I WANT TO BE A POLICE OFFICER. Lee and his wife, Dr. Denene Lofland, live in the Boston area, where he proudly serves on the board of directors for the New England Chapter of Mystery Writers of America. He's also a member of Sisters in Crime.
Websites: leelofland.com and The Graveyard Shift

JIM McCARTHY

Jim McCarthy interned for DGLM while studying urban design at New York University. Upon graduating, Jim realized he would much rather continue working with books than make the jump (as he had originally intended) to the field of city planning. As an avid fiction reader, his interests encompass both literary and commercial works. He is particularly interested in literary women's fiction, underrepresented voices, mysteries, romance, paranormal fiction and anything unusual or unexpected. In addition to fiction he is also interested in narrative nonfiction, humor, memoir, paranormal nonfiction, and anything related to architecture, planning, or real estate. Jim was raised just outside of NYC and currently lives in Brooklyn.

NANCY PICKARD

Nancy Pickard is the creator of the Jenny Cain mystery series and the Marie Lightfoot series. She is also the author of three books in the Eugenia Potter mystery series, and the co-author of the non-fiction book SEVEN STEPS ON THE WRITER'S PATH. Her novels and short stories have won Agatha, Anthony, Shamus, Barry and Macavity awards, and she is a four-time Edgar award finalist. Her most recent novel, THE VIRGIN OF SMALL PLAIN, is a Kansas Notable Book, 2006. It won the Agatha, Macavity and Lovey awards, and was a finalist for the Edgar, Dilys and Anthony awards. Nancy was a founding member and the first elected president of Sisters In Crime, and she is a former board member of the Mystery Writers of America. She is a lifelong resident of the Kansas City area, now living in Merriam.

KATHERINE RAMSLAND

Dr. Katherine Ramsland has a master's degree in forensic psychology from the internationally esteemed John Jay College of Criminal Justice, a master's degree in clinical psychology from Duquesne University, and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Rutgers. She has published 31 books, including THE CSI EFFECT, INSIDE THE MINDS OF SERIAL KILLERS, INSIDE THE MINDS OF MASS MURDERERS, THE HUMAN PREDATOR: A Historical Chronology of Serial Murder and Forensic Investigation, THE CRIMINAL MIND: A Writers' Guide to Forensic Psychology, and THE FORENSIC SCIENC OF CSI. With former FBI profiler Gregg McCrary, she co-authored the book on his cases, THE UNKNOWN DARKNESS: Profiling the Predators Among Us (Morrow, 2003), and with Professor James E. Starrs, A VOICE FOR THE DEAD (Putnam 2005), a collection of his cases of historical exhumations and rigorous forensic investigation. She has been translated into 10 languages; published nearly 400 articles on serial killers, criminology, forensic science and criminal investigation; and been a research assistant to former FBI profiler John Douglas (MIND HUNTER). She also wrote two novels and over a dozen short stories, as well as critically acclaimed biographies of writers Anne Rice and Dean Koontz. She currently contributes editorials on forensic issues to The Philadelphia Inquirer, writes a regular feature on historical forensics for The Forensic Examiner; and teaches forensic psychology as an assistant professor at DeSales University in Pennsylvania. Her forthcoming books are INTO THE DEVIL'S DEN, about an undercover operative; TRUE STORIES OF CSI; and THE DEVIL'S DOZEN: Twelve Cases of Forensic Innovation and Serial Murder.
Website: katherineramsland.com

WALLY ROBERTS & AJ

Wally Roberts is an Investigator with the State of Kansas, assigned to the Kansas State Fire Marshal's Office. He has been with the fire marshal for seven years and in law enforcement in Kansas for 16 years. Prior to this he was in the U.S. Army at Fort Riley. He also was a firefighter in California. His current assignment with the KSFM is to investigate fires and explosions within Kansas.

AJ is a 6-year-old yellow Lab, born in England. She was brought to the USA to be a seeing-eye dog. While in school, she liked to play with other animals so she was taken from that program and given to the ATF, where she was trained to be an explosives detection K-9. She and Wally Roberts have been together for four years, working all over the U.S. on different assignments.

JENNIE SPALLONE

Jennie Spallone is a noted suspense author who wrote over 100 profiles and feature stories for local and national publications, as well as two special-education texts, before putting pen to her first suspense novel. DEADLY CHOICES won Third Place for Mystery Fiction at the Police Writers Conference (name changed to Public Safety Writers) in Las Vegas. Jennie, an active member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, speaks at local bookstores and libraries, in addition to Mystery Conferences throughout the country, including Bouchercon, Printer's Row, Sleuthfest, Malice Domestic, Magna Cum Murder, Midwest Literary Fest, Love is Murder, Public Safety Writers of America, and the University of Wisconsin Writer's Institute.
Email: spalloneauthor@aol.com

MICHAEL STUEVEN

Sgt. Michael Stueven is a criminal investigator with the Augusta, Kansas, Department of Public Safety. He is an Eagle Scout, a graduate of Butler Community College, and was president of the 137th basic training academy class at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center. He is a recipient of the department's Life Saving Award and the Silver Wreath of Valor. Sgt. Stueven began his career in law enforcement in 1993 and has worked as a patrolman, firefighter, and narcotics detective. In 1999, he was appointed to his current position, where he works major crimes. He has participated in numerous high-profile area cases, including the 2002 shooting death of a clerk at the Augusta Wal-Mart, a case which drew national attention. The trial ultimately aired live on Court TV. Sgt. Stueven has also instructed various courses ranging from crime scene investigation to technical rescue. As part of his current duties, Sgt. Stueven is a divemaster for the dive rescue team, which is comprised of members of the Department of Safety and the Butler County Rescue Squad. Its members have specialized training and equipment, allowing them to work in conjunction with local authorities in the recovery and documentation of evidence in the challenging underwater environment.

JOAN UPTON HALL

"For 28 years of the last millennium, I taught English," Joan Upton Hall says. During that time she edited and cartooned for a teacher newsletter that won national awards. Now a full-time freelance writer and editor, she instructs writing classes and speaks to groups: civic organizations, book clubs, writers' groups, libraries, you name it. Her manual, Rx for Your Writing Ills, has helped hundreds of writers, and several writer newsletters carry her columns. She contributes travel columns and an occasional humor column to the county newspaper and is the editor of a "writer to reader" newsletter called Page Turners. She has published short stories from Roswell, New Mexico, to Maine, and numerous articles in magazines as diverse as Texas Highways, American Jails, and ByLine writers' magazine. If you think that indicates a split personality, her book credits run from historical nonfiction to the paranormal and urban fantasy.
Website: JoanUptonHall.com