The Lineup

THE LINEUP 

A retired Attorney, Mark Bruce won the 2018 Black Orchid Novella Award with the first Minerva James Story. This is Minerva’s fifth appearance in AHMM.

Mat Coward has published his short fiction in AHMM and EQMM and writes about odd events from British radical history on his Rebel Britannia Substack.

A veteran and cartoonist, with a love of history, James D. Crabtree is the author of On Air Defense (Bloomsbury), and 2 books about his experiences in the Middle East: Orange Berets and Secrets and Scuds, both published by Jimmy Sinai Books.

Chicago author Dan Crawford writes the Polijn minstrel series, and has been publishing in AHMM since 1988. His poetry can be found on YouTube.

William J. Demorascki runs a small writing business. He’s published fiction in Mystery Magazine and The Saturday Evening Post. This is his first publication in our pages.

Kevin Egan is the author of A Shattered Circle (Forge, 2017). This is his 26th story to appear in AHMM, dating back to the January 2009 issue.

Nick Guthrie is a crime writer based in the UK, and his short fiction has been published in AHMM, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, and other magazines and anthologies. Under other writing names, he is the author of more than twenty books.

Harry Hunsicker is the author of 10 crime thrillers, including The Life and Death of Rose Doucette (Oceanview)—shortlisted for a 2025 Thriller Award—and Mother May I (Oceanview, October). 

Novelist, audio theater producer, and filmmaker Bret Jones is the author of Stage Blood and Listener in the Dark (Cozy Cat Press). He is a former professor of performing arts at Wichita State University. 

Janice Law’s novels include Mornings in London (mysteriouspress.com), Homeward Dove (Wildside), and The Falling Men (Amazon). She won the Lambda Literary Award for her novel Prisoner of the Riviera in 2014.

Robert Lopresti is a retired librarian and the 2012 winner of the Black Orchid Novella Award. This is his 45th story in AHMM, going back to 1981. His AHMM story “Christmas Dinner” (Nov/Dec 2024) was a Derringer Award finalist. He blogs at SleuthSayers and Little Big Crimes.

Jeff Soloway was presented with the Robert L. Fish Award for Best First Mystery Story for “The Interpreter and the Killer” (EQMM, Jan/Feb 2021.) He writes The Travel Writer mystery series.

Robert L. Fish Award nominee for Best First Short Story, Gabriela Stiteler is an educator based in Portland, Maine. She co-chairs the New England Crime Bake and is a regular writer for the Maine Crime Writers blog.

Floyd Sullivan’s story “The Girl in the Pit,” first published in AHMM, has been selected for the anthology The Best Private Eye Stories of the Year 2026, available this fall. “The Wedding Photographer” is his seventh Rick Peters story for AHMM.

Mark Thielman is a two-time winner of the Black Orchid Novella Award. His  latest novel is The Firefall: a Murder in Yosemite (Severn River, 2026), from his series featuring Special Agents Clarence Johnson and Alison Nance of the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch.

Bob Tippee is a technical writer, manuscript consultant, and volunteer crisis counselor in Houston, Texas.