MINNESOTA CRIME WAVE: Who Are We?

William Kent Krueger: He calls himself Kent and he writes the Cork O'Connor series set in Minnesota's great north woods. His first two books, Iron Lake and Boundary Waters, received a number of awards including the Anthony award for Best First Novel, the Minnesota Book Award and the Loft-McKnight Fiction Award. His third novel, Purgatory Ridge, won the Minnesota Book Award for 2001; his fourth, Blood Hollow, won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of 2004. One critic has dubbed him the Michael Connelly of the Midwest. He is also the author of a stand-alone thriller, The Devil's Bed. The latest Cork O'Connor mystery, Copper River, was published in 2006.

Ellen Hart: After spending twelve years as a kitchen manager at a large sorority at the University of Minnesota, she decided it was necessary to either do the real thing or commit murder on paper. Thus, she became a mystery writer. The author of over 20 novels, Ellen is a five-time winner of the Lambda award for Best Lesbian mystery, and twice winner of the Minnesota Book Award for Best Crime & Detective Fiction. She was made an official GLBT Literary Saint at the Saints & Sinners Literary convention in New Orleans in 2005, and she has been awarded the Alice B. Readers Appreciation Medal. She teaches mystery writing at the University of Minnesota and at the Loft Literary Center. She lives in Minneapolis with her partner of over 25 years.

Carl Brookins: Before he turned to writing mysteries full time, Carl was a freelance photographer, a public television program director, a Cable TV administrator and a counselor and faculty member at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul. Carl has written crime fiction reviews for Mystery Scene Magazine, two Internet sites, Reviewing The Evidence and Books n' Bytes, and for the Saint Paul Pioneer Press. An avid sailor, he is the author of a sailing mystery series featuring Michael Tanner and Mary Whitney, published by Top Publications. They are titled Inner Passages, A Superior Mystery, set in Wisconsin's Apostle Islands, and Old Silver, published in May, 2005. His first detective novel, featuring PI, Sean NMI Sean, was released in September 2005 in hardcover from Five Star Mysteries. It's titled The Case of the Greedy Lawyers.

© 2002-08 by Carl Brookins, Ellen Hart and William Kent Krueger.
Permission is hereby granted for reproduction of any material contained in this web site for purposes of publicity and promotion related to the sale of our books and/or appearances by members of the Minnesota Crime Wave.

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