Book Passage

Mystery Writers Conference 2022 -- Faculty

Cara Black - Hallie Ephron - Rachel Howzell Hall - Laurie King - Tim Maleeny - Kelli Stanley

The Faculty List

This is the list of faculty members for the MWC as of now. Please check back for later additions as the Conference gets closer.

Cara Black
Conference Co-Chair
Bestselling author of the Aimée Leduc mysteries set in Paris. Hr latest in the series is Murder at the Porte de Versailles, Publisher's Weekly describes her new book this wasy: “In bestseller Black’s riveting 20th Aimée Leduc investigation, tensions are high in Paris two months after 9/11 . . . Rich with detail about life in Paris, this entry illuminates the complications that friends and family can unwittingly create." She is a member of the Marais Societe Historique and received the Medaille de la Ville de Paris, bestowed on those supporting French culture. She is a San Francisco Library Laureate. The New York Times says "If the cobblestones could speak they might tell a tale as haunting as the one Black spins." Mystery Conference Alum. 

Rhys Bowen

New York Times bestselling author of the Anthony Award - and Agatha Award-winning Molly Murphy mysteries, the Edgar Award-nominated Evan Evans series, the Royal Spyness series, and several stand-alone novels including In Farleigh Field. Born in England, she lives in San Rafael, CA.

Susan Breall

San Francisco Superior court judge. When she was in the District Attorney's office, she supervised the prosecution of violent crimes against women, children, and the elderly.

Tony Broadbent

Writer of acclaimed mystery novels and short stories. His novels include The Smoke and The One After 9:09: A Mystery with a Backbeat Mystery Conference Alum. 

Kimberley Cameron
Literary agent and President of Kimberley Cameron and Associates. She has been successful with many different genres, and especially loves the thrill of securing representation for debut authors. Cameron represents both fiction and nonfiction manuscripts

Elvis Chan
An Assistant Special Agent in Charge (ASAC) assigned to FBI San Francisco. ASAC Chan manages the field office’s Cyber Branch, which is responsible for cyber investigations, digital forensics, technical operations, community engagement, and public affairs. With over 16 years in the Bureau, he is a decorated agent who is recognized within the Intelligence Community as an election cybersecurity and cyberterrorism expert. ASAC Chan was the lead agent on significant cyber investigations and managed joint counterterrorism operations with domestic and foreign law enforcement agencies. Prior to joining the Bureau, ASAC Chan was a process development engineer in the semiconductor industry for almost 12 years. He holds two U.S. patents, presents at many technical and law enforcement symposiums, and published multiple articles in journals. ASAC Chan earned his bachelor’s degrees in chemical engineering and chemistry from the University of Washington and his master’s degree in homeland security studies from the Naval Postgraduate School.

Joe Clifford
The author of the soon-to-be-released The Shadow People. Clifford's previous books including The One That Got Away, and Junkie Love. He is the editor of the anthology Trouble in the Heartland: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Bruce Springsteen. 

Hallie Ephron
The Chicago Review of Books says '[Hallie] Ephron’s novels are hyper-contemporary, engaging with our very of-the-moment fears about family life and the modern world." Ephron is an acclaimed writer and teacher whose contemporary suspense novels include Careful What You Wish For, You'll Never Know Dear, and Night Night, Sleep Tight. 

George Fong
Spent twenty-seven years as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, investigating all facets of violent crimes, including kidnapping, extortion, serial killings, crimes against children, bank robbery, drug trafficking, fugitives, and Asian gangs. He was a member of the FBI's Evidence Response Team and a certified undercover agent. Fong is now the Director of Security for the world-wide sports television network, ESPN, and author of the thrillers The Coldness of Night and Fragmented.

Kate Gale
Co-founder and Managing Editor of Red Hen Press, Editor of the Los Angeles Review.  She teaches in the Low Residency MFA program at the University of Nebraska in Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction. She is the author of the forthcoming The Loneliest Girl from the University of New Mexico Press and of seven books of poetry including The Goldilocks Zone from the University of New Mexico Press in 2014, and Echo Light from Red Mountain in 2014 and six librettos including Rio de Sangre, a libretto for an opera with composer Don Davis, which had its world premiere October 2010 at the Florentine Opera in Milwaukee.

Dr. Terri Haddix
In addition to working in the area of forensic pathology for over 25 years,  she has received forensic pathology training in Seattle, WA and neuropathology training at Stanford.  She is board certified in anatomic, forensic and neuropathology.  She has performed forensic autopsies in several counties throughout California and has testified as an expert in forensic pathology in both criminal and civil cases.    

Rachel Howzell Hall
Author of the acclaimed Lou Norton series, including Land of Shadows, Skies of Ash, Trail of Echoes, and City of Saviors, as well as They All Fall Down, a standalone thriller, and the co-author of The Good Sister with James Patterson, which was included in the New York Times bestseller The Family Lawyer. Her latest novels include And Now She's Gone. She is on the board of directors for Mystery Writers of America.

Laurie R. King
The bestselling author of twenty-seven novels, including the Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes stories. That series began with The Beekeeper’s Apprentice and continued with Island of the Mad, which is set in Mussolini’s Italy. Her latest books include Riviera Gold.

Ellen Kirschman
A police psychologist for 40 years, she is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, The American Psychological Association, Sisters-in-Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Public Safety Writers Association. She is the recipient of the California Psychological Association's award for distinguished contribution to psychology as well as the American Psychological Association's award for outstanding contribution to the practice of police and public safety psychology. In addition to her award winning four book Dot Meyerhoff mystery series, told from the perspective of a spunky police psychologist, Ellen is the author of I Love a Cop: What Police Families Need to Know; I Love a Fire Fighter: What the Family Needs to Know, and lead author of Counseling Cops: What Clinicians Need to Know. Ellen lives in Redwood City, California with her husband.  She blogs with Psychology Today, writes an occasional newsletter, and maintains a website at www.ellenkirschman.com.

Elizabeth K. Kracht 

A literary agent with Kimberley Cameron & Associates and a freelance editor. She holds a bachelor’s degree in technical writing from New York Institute of Technology. She has lived in New York, San Francisco, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, and regularly participates in writers’ conferences nationally and internationally.

James L’Etoile
Author of novels, short stories, and screenplays influenced by his 29 years behind bars. He is a former associate warden in a maximum security prison, a hostage negotiator, and director of California’s parole system. His published novels include At What Cost, Bury the Past, and Little River. Bury the Past was a Silver Falchion award finalist for best procedural mystery of the year.

Tim Maleeny 
Conference Co-Chair
Author of the award-winning Cape Weathers mysteries including Boxing The Octopus, Stealing The Dragon, Beating The Babushka, Greasing The Piñata and the bestselling comedic thriller Jump, which Publishers Weekly called "a perfectly blended cocktail of escapism." Tim's short fiction has won the prestigious Macavity Award and appears in several leading anthologies.

Vilaska Nguyen
Felony trial attorney at San Francisco Public Defender's Office. For over a decade, he has tried cases ranging from drug sales to homicide. He guest lectures at USF School of Law and facilitates the mock-trial workshop at 826 Valencia, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting under-resourced youth in San Francisco. His short stories have been published in NANO Fiction, Blue Fifth Review: Blue Five Notebook Series, Squawk Back and As It Ought to Be. His story "Wardship" was nominated for Best Small Fiction of 2016 in the Queen's Ferry Press.

Thomas Perry
Born in Tonawanda, New York in 1947, he received a B.A. from Cornell University in 1969 and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Rochester in 1974. Perry is the author of 30 novels including the Jane Whitefield series (Vanishing Act, Dance for the Dead, Shadow Woman, The Face Changers, Blood Money, Runner, Poison Flower, and String of Beads), Death Benefits, and Pursuit, the first recipient of the Gumshoe Award for best novel. His 2017 novel, The Old Man is now an acclaimed TV series starring Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow.  Perry was the Bouchercon Guest of Honor at Bouchercon in Anchorage in 2007. Perry won the Edgar for The Butcher’s Boy, and Metzger’s Dog was a New York Times Notable Book. The Independent Mystery Booksellers’ Association included Vanishing Act in its “100 Favorite Mysteries of the 20th Century." Metzger’s Dog was voted one of NPR’s 100 Killer Thrillers — Best Thrillers Ever.  Strip was chosen as a  New York Times Notable Crime Book for 2010. The Informant was a New York Times Notable Crime Book for 2011. The Informant won the the Barry Award in 2012. Poison Flower was chosen among Booklist’s Best Crime Novels of 2013. The Informant and Eddie's Boy are Barry Award winners.

Bill Petrocelli
Author of Electoral Bait and Switch and mystery novel Through the Bookstore Window, Bill attended Oakland Public Schools and is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and the U.C. Law School. In addition to several years in private practice, he served as a California Deputy Attorney General and as the head of a poverty law office in Oakland, California. He served on the Board of the American Booksellers Association and as attorney for the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, in which he successfully pursued a major price-discrimination suit against publishers. Recently, he was the plaintiff in a First Amendment case challenging a California law that threatened to interfere with the distribution of autographed books.

Susan C. Shea
Author of Dressed for Death in Burgundy as well as Love & Death in Burgundy, and the Dani O’Rourke mystery series. She is past-president of the Northern California chapter of Sisters in Crime and secretary of the national SinC board, a member of MWA, and blogs on CriminalMinds.

Luisa Smith
Editor in Chief of Mysterious Press, and the head book buyer at Book Passage.

Kelli Stanley
Critically-acclaimed, multiple award-winning author of crime fiction (novels and short stories). She is best known for the Miranda Corbie series of historical noir novels and short stories set in 1940 San Francisco. She's the author of City of Sharks.

Robin C. Stuart
Veteran cyber crime investigator and contributing author to Fault Lines: Stories by Northern California Crime Writers and Handbook for Information Security. She consults on all things cyber security for Fortune 100 companies, television shows, and media outlets, including BBC and NowThis News. She was a significant contributor to the Tech Museum of Innovation's acclaimed Cyber Detectives interactive installation, one of the museum's most popular permanent exhibits, which earned praise from the Obama Administration.