Murderati

MONDAY

PARI NOSKIN TAICHERT

Pari Noskin Taichert hails from Albuquerque and has worked as a belly-dancing instructor, textbook sales consultant, and long-time PR pro—among her more respectable jobs. A national award-winning journalist, Pari now devotes her time to writing novels. Her first mystery, THE CLOVIS INCIDENT, was a regional bestseller, a Book Sense 76 Pick and a nominee for the prestigious Agatha Award in 2004. Her next novel, THE BELEN HITCH, did even better—selling out of its hardcover edition in a little more than a month and going immediately into trade paperback. Among its more notable successes,

THE BELEN HITCH was selected as a Book Sense Notable Mystery and garnered a second consecutive nomination for an Agatha Award—this time for Best Novel—for 2005.

Unlike her reality-challenged, whipped cream-dependent protagonist, Pari is married, has children and leads a relatively normal life.

TUESDAY

LOUISE URE

Louise Ure is an Arizonan who lives in San Francisco. A child of the desert who can't stand the heat. A woman who built a career around thirty second TV commercials and then sat down to write an eighty thousand-word novel.

Born in Tucson, she is one of only two members of her 400-strong family to ever leave the city limits. "If you stay here long enough," one cousin told her, "everything comes through Tucson." Louise wasn't willing to wait.

She spent a quarter of a century in advertising and marketing in the U.S, Singapore and Australia -- including work with Michael Jackson on The Dancing California Raisins -- before finding her true love: writing crime fiction.

Her debut novel, Forcing Amaryllis, won the Shamus award for Best First Novel.

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TESS GERRITSEN

Internationally bestselling author Tess Gerritsen took an unusual route to a writing career. A graduate of Stanford University, Tess went on to medical school at the University of California, San Francisco, where she was awarded her M.D.

While on maternity leave from her work as a physician, she began to write fiction. In 1987, her first novel was published. Call After Midnight, a romantic thriller, was followed by eight more romantic suspense novels. She also wrote a screenplay, "Adrift," which aired as a 1993 CBS Movie of the Week starring Kate Jackson.

Tess's first medical thriller, Harvest, was released in hardcover in 1996, and it marked her debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Her suspense novels since then have been: Life Support (1997), Bloodstream (1998), Gravity (1999), The Surgeon (2001), The Apprentice (2002), The Sinner (2003), Body Double (2004), Vanish (2005), The Mephisto Club (2006), and The Bone Garden (2007). Her books have been translated into 31 languages, and more than 15 million copies have been sold around the world.

Now retired from medicine, she writes full time. She lives in Maine.

WEDNESDAY

ROBERT GREGORY BROWNE

Winner of the prestigious AMPAS Nicholl award, Robert Gregory Browne spent several years riding the Hollywood rollercoaster before severe motion sickness forced his retirement from the business. At the urging of a novelist friend, Browne tried his hand at long-form fiction and the result, a thriller called Kiss Her Goodbye, is the first of a two-book deal with St. Martin's Press.
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J.D. RHOADES

J.D. Rhoades was born and raised in North Carolina. He has worked as a radio news reporter, club DJ, television cameraman, ad salesman, waiter, practicing attorney, and newspaper columnist. His weekly column in the Southern Pines, North Carolina Pilot was named best column of the year in its division for 2005.

His first novel, The Devil’s Right Hand, was released in 2005; Good Day in Hell, his second novel featuring North Carolina bail bondsman Jack Keller, was released in March 2006. He lives, writes, and practices law in Carthage, North Carolina.

THURSDAY

BRETT BATTLES

Brett was born and raised in southern California. His parents, avid readers, instilled the love of books in him early on.

Though he still makes California his home, he has traveled extensively, including trips to Vietnam and Germany—two locations that play prominent parts in his debut thriller THE CLEANER. His second novel, THE DECEIVED, will be out in June, 2008. He is working on his third book to feature Jonathan Quinn.
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ZOЁ SHARP

Zoë Sharp opted out of mainstream education at the age of twelve and wrote her first novel at fifteen. Finding herself wildly under-qualified for just about anything, she became a freelance photo-journalist in 1988 and has been making a living through words and pictures ever since.

She began writing her series of crime thrillers featuring ex-Special Forces turned bodyguard heroine, Charlie Fox, after receiving death-threats in the course of her work. The fourth in the series, FIRST DROP, was nominated for a Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel and her short stories have been published in anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic, and in Ellery Queen magazine.

Sharp is married to her biggest fan, Andy, a non-fiction author. They live in the English Lake District, where they have self-built their own house. www.ZoeSharp.com

FRIDAY

J.T. ELLISON

J.T. is a former White House staffer who moved to Nashville and began research on a passion, forensics and crime. She worked extensively with the Metro Nashville Police Department, and utilized these experiences to write her critically acclaimed debut novel, ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS.

J.T. was mentored by one of her literary heroes, best-selling author Lee Child. He offered great praise for the author of ALL THE PRETTY GIRLS.

Said Child: "J.T. paints the feel, the context, the background, with deft, subtle, unforced strokes. She develops nuance, character and plot effortlessly. She's got talent and self-confidence, a truly winning combination." She lists Child, John Sanford, John Connolly and Michael Connelly among her favorite authors.

J.T's short stories have been widely published, including "Prodigal Me", a short featured in the anthology KILLER YEAR, edited by Lee Child, published by St. Martin's Minotaur.

She is the Friday columnist at Murderati.com and is a founding member of Killer Year, an organization promoting the best debut novelists of 2007. Her next novel in the Taylor Jackson series, 14, will be released in September, 2008. Learn more at JTEllison.com

SATURDAY

ALEXANDRA SOKOLOFF

Alexandra is a screenwriter who has sold original suspense and thriller scripts and adapted novels for numerous Hollywood studios, for producers such as Michael Bay, Laura Ziskin, David Heyman, and Neal Moritz. Her adaptation of Sabine Deitmer's thriller COLD KISSES was filmed in Germany.

She is the author of two new novels, both supernatural thrillers: THE HARROWING, a ghost story just out from St. Martin's Press, and THE PRICE, coming from St. Martin's in 2007, and has a story in the anthology THE DARKER MASK, out from Tor in 2008.

Alex has served on the Board of Directors of the WGA; is the founder of WriterAction.com, an online community of 1800+ professional screenwriters; and sings as a Killerette in the ITW's Killer Thriller Band.

SUNDAY

TONI MCGEE CAUSEY