Thrills and Chills with Local Mystery Writers

Join us for an afternoon of thrills and chills with local mystery authors ready to divulge their mysterious workings. Enjoy themed treats, a glass of wine, and a sense of the macabre. Costumes are welcome! Can’t make it? Join online via Zoom.

Registration required: https://santacruzpl.libcal.com/event/11313207

Author Ron Cook will moderate panelists Laurie R. King, Peggy Townsend, Vinnie Hansen, and Jack Erickson.

Each author’s books will be available for purchase and signing at this free event. Registration is required.

Ron Cooke After 50+ years of being an award-winning woodcraft artist, Ron Cook returned to his first love, writing. Ron is the author of the Charles Blue Paranormal Mysteries as well as a series of short stories and mystery novelettes. Besides writing mysteries, he has also written a memoir of his episodes in the Army entertainment corps in Korea during the Vietnam era as well as a book of poetry. His latest Charles Blue novel, The Last Family of Wizards, was released in August.

Laurie R. King is the NYT bestselling author of 30 novels and other works, including the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes novels. She has won the Agatha, Anthony, Edgar, Lambda, Wolfe, Macavity, Creasey dagger, and Romantic Times Career Achievement awards, has an honorary doctorate, is a Baker Street Irregular, and was named Mystery Writers of American’s 2022 Grand Master.

Jack Erickson writes in multiple genres: international thrillers, mysteries, true crime, short mysteries, noir, and romantic suspense. He is currently writing the Milan Thriller Series featuring the anti-terrorism police, DIGOS, at Milan’s Questura (police headquarters). Book I in the series is Thirteen Days in Milan. Book 2, No One Sleeps, was published in December 2016. Book 3, Vesuvius Nights, was published in 2019. Book 4, The Lonely Assassin, was published in 2022. I have high level sources in DIGOS at Milan’s Questura who provide me with important details about surveillance and police procedures.

Peggy Townsend is an award-winning newspaper journalist who once took a flashlight to a knife fight and has met more murderers than is probably healthy for anyone. The Library Journal called her newest suspense novel, The Beautiful and the Wild, “a riveting read of determination and perseverance.” It will be released Nov. 7. Townsend is a runner, a downhill skier, a mountain-biker and has traveled across the U.S. and Canada in her van multiple times.

Vinnie Hansen is a two-time Claymore Award finalist, Vinnie Hansen is the author of the Carol Sabala mystery series, the novels LOSTART STREET and ONE GUN, as well as over fifty published short works. Anthony, Barry, and Macavity award-winning author James Ziskin says “ONE GUN unspools a long-exquisite crescendo of foreboding and dread as clouds gather for a chilling, unexpected climax. Top-notch writing, sensitive touch, and heart-wrenching choices.”

Still sane(ish) after 27 years of teaching high school English, Vinnie has retired and plays keyboards with ukulele groups.