Date: December 9, 2018

Day: Sunday

Time: 2:00 PM

Title: Philipp Hesse: Unlikely Hero of the Reformation

Just five months after Martin Luther published his Ninety-Five Theses, 13-year-old Philipp was declared Landgrave of Hesse, ruler of one of the most powerful principalities of the Holy Roman Empire. To some, he was admired as heroic. To others, he was despised as scandalous.

This comprehensive look at the life and role of Philipp invites readers to take a deeper look at the intertwining history of the Church, the Reformation, and politics.

About the Author

John E. Helmke is a pastor emeritus at St. John Lutheran Church in Forest Park, IL. He conducted research on Philipp of Hesse from 1974 to 1980 in JKM Library of the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), a short walk to the University of Chicago and Regenstein Library.

Date: October 27, 2018

Day: Saturday

Time: 2:00 PM

Title: Camelot 13: Celebrating the Spirit of Arthur and His Knights

Editor: Michael Black

Contributing Authors: D. C. Brod, Dave Case & Michael Black

By John L. French (Editor), Patrick Thomas (Editor), Michael a. Black

$17.00

Usually Ships in 1-5 Days

Description

Fighting for the right, 
every day and knight.

Camelot may be gone but the dream lives on. 
From King Arthur's England to the modern world and beyond come 13 tales of the spirit of the Round Table. From noir cases to outer space, from a bionic mermaid to a vampire survivor of the Nazi holocaust, from spies to high school to romance, and even the Holy Grail and Excalibur, these tales put Camelot in places it has never been yet is sorely needed. 
Join us for these stories celebrating the spirit of Camelot

Featuring the legendary talents of: Michael A. Black, Dave Case, and D. C. Brod

Michael Black

Michael A. Black graduated from Columbia College, Chicago in 2000 with a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiction Writing. He previously earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Northern Illinois University. Despite his literary leanings, he has often said that police work has been his life. A former Army Military Policeman, he entered civilian law enforcement after his discharge, and for the past twenty-seven years has been a police officer in the south suburbs of Chicago.

The author of over forty articles on subjects ranging from police work to popular fiction, he has also had over thirty short stories published in various anthologies and magazines, including Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine.

He has worked in various capacities in police work including patrol supervisor, tactical squad, investigations, raid team member, and SWAT team leader. He is currently a sergeant on the Matteson, Illinois Police Department. His hobbies include weightlifting, running, and the martial arts. He holds a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. It is rumored he has five cats.

D.C. Brod

DC Brod, author of Getting Lucky, has written fiction most of her life, but didn't think she had a novel in her until she graduated from Nothern Illinois University with an MA in journalism. It was then that she decided if she could spend 120 pages discussing postal oppression of the radical press, she could write a novel. She was right.

"Caper fans will relish Brod's offbeat stand-alone thriller. Illinois freelance writer Robyn Guthrie can no longer afford to keep her elderly mother, Lizzie, in an assisted living facility. Desperate to come up with the cash somehow, Robyn considers a variety of illegal acts. In the end, she seeks to kill two birds with one stone by trying to retrieve a large amount of Lizzie's savings that were lost in a real estate scam from the con man responsible, Bull Severn. Fortunately, Robyn's shady accountant, ex-jockey Mick Hughes, has access to Bull and, more importantly, to Bull's prize possession, a racehorse called Bull's Blood. Mick, who has financial troubles of his own, takes seriously Robyn's half-baked notion of holding Sassy, a goat to whom Bull's Blood is emotionally attached, for ransom. Brod (Heartstone) expertly blends suspenseful action with characters readers will care for, in particular her sympathetic and plausible lead."
-- Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)
". . . In the end, though, what stands out most is the surprisingly affecting portrait of a woman caught in the midst of a parent's sad but sure mental decline."
-- Booklist
"Brod expertly blends suspenseful action with characters readers will care for, in particular the sympathetic and plausible lead."
-- Publishers Weekly on Getting Sassy

Dave Case

Dave Case retired from the Chicago Police Department as a lieutenant in July 2017, having spent more than 31 years in the field. His highly-regarded novel, Out of Cabrini, reflected his many years working in that particular housing complex. Dave has a Master’s from Northwestern University in Creative Writing, as well as numerous short stories and articles published. His fiction clearly exhibits his experience on the street and captures the intensity and ferocity of conflict only as one who has been there can.

Authors:  Libby Fischer Hellmann and Victoria Thompson

Titles: High Crimes (5th in the Chicago PI Georgia Davis Thriller Series)                                                                                                           

City of Secrets (2nd Counterfeit Lady Novel with Elizabeth Miles

Day: Sunday

Date: November 11, 2018

Time: 2:00 PM

Book Description

How do you solve a murder when there are 42,000 suspects?

That’s the task facing Chicago PI Georgia Davis, hired to hunt down those ultimately responsible for the assassination of Resistance leader Dena Baldwin at a demonstration fourteen months after the 2016 election. The gunman, on a nearby hotel rooftop, dies within minutes of the shooting. As Georgia sifts through Dena’s 42,000 Facebook followers, she discovers that unknown enemies hiding behind fake profiles have infiltrated the group. She finds others who will do whatever it takes—including murder—to shield right-wing, wealthy elites. When Georgia begins piecing together the facts, relatives of both victims mysteriously disappear, and the danger escalates. Threats and bruises have never frightened Georgia, but she’s side-swiped by the sudden reappearance of the mother who abandoned her when she was a child. Can she survive an emotional family crisis at the same time she pursues killers whose only goal is to protect themselve

Libby Fischer Hellmann writes Compulsively Readable Thrillers. With thirteen novels and twenty short stories published, she has also written suspense mysteries, historicals, PI novels, amateur sleuth, police procedurals, and even a cozy mystery.

She is a transplant from Washington, D.C., where, she says, “When you’re sitting around the dinner table gossiping about the neighbors, you’re talking politics.” Armed with a Masters Degree in Film Production from New York University, and a BA in history from the University of Pennsylvania, she started her career in broadcast news. She began as an assistant film editor at NBC News in New York, but moved back to DC where she worked with Robin McNeil and Jim Lehrer at N-PACT, the public affairs production arm of PBS. When Watergate broke, she was re-trained as an assistant director and helped produce PBS’s night-time broadcasts of the hearings.

Description

An exciting new book in the series featuring woman-on-the-run Elizabeth Miles--from the beloved national bestselling author of the Gaslight Mysteries.

Elizabeth Miles knows that honesty is not always the best policy when it comes to finding justice. Elizabeth has discovered that navigating the rules of high society is the biggest con of all. She knows she can play the game, but so far, her only success is Priscilla Knight, a dedicated young suffragist recently widowed for the second time. Her beloved first husband died in a tragic accident and left her with two young daughters--and a sizable fortune. While she was lost in grief, Priscilla's pastor convinced her she needed a man to look after her and engineered a whirlwind courtship and hasty marriage to fellow parishioner Endicott Knight. Now, about nine months later, Endicott is dead in what appears to be another terrible accident.  Everyone is whispering, but that is the least of Priscilla's troubles. She had believed Endicott was wealthy, too, but her banker tells her she has no money left and her house has been mortgaged. He also hints at a terrible scandal and refuses to help. Priscilla stands to lose everything, and Elizabeth is determined not to let that happen. But, as always, Elizabeth walks a fine line between using her unusual talents and revealing her own scandalous past. Elizabeth soon discovers that Endicott's death was anything but accidental, and revealing the truth could threaten much more than Priscilla's finances. To save her new friend's future--and possibly her own--Elizabeth, along with her honest-to-a-fault beau, Gideon, delve into the sinister secrets someone would kill to keep.

About the Author

Victoria Thompson is the Edgar� and Agatha award-nominated author of the Gaslight Mysteries--including Murder in the Bowery, Murder in Morningside Heights, Murder on St. Nicholas Avenue, Murder on Amsterdam Avenue, and Murder in Murray Hill--as well as numerous historical novels.

Author Discussion & Signing with Val Bruech

Title: Judicious Murder

Date: August 5, 2018

Day: Sunday

Time: 2:00 PM

September 23, 2017 Saturday

NOON

Sisters in Crime Special Meeting:

Mary Welk's Plaque Dedication

Authors/Editors For April 1, 2017 (Saturday) at 2:00 PM

Laura Caldwell

Biography

Laura Caldwell is a former civil trial attorney who is now a law professor at Loyola University Chicago School of Law. She is also director of Life After Innocence and a published author of 14 novels and one nonfiction book.

Before beginning her writing career, Laura was a partner in a Chicago law firm, specializing in medical malpractice defense and entertainment law. In 2001 she joined Loyola University Chicago School of Law and has taught Advanced Litigation Writing and International Criminal Law, among others.

Laura began her writing career in women’s fiction and soon turned to mystery/thriller. Her first book, Burning the Map, was voted as one of the best books of the year by Barnes and Noble.com. Booklist declared “Caldwell is one of the most talented and inventive … writers around,” after the release of The Year of Living Famously and The Night I Got Lucky. The release of her trilogy in 2009 received critical acclaim and nominations for prestigious industry awards.

While researching her sixth novel, The Rome Affair, Laura was led to the criminal case of a young man who was coerced into confessing to a crime he didn’t commit. Charged with murder, he sat in a Cook County holding cell for nearly six years with no trial date. After hearing about his case, Laura joined a renowned criminal defense attorney to defend him, ultimately proving his innocence and inspiring her first nonfiction book, Long Way Home: A Young Man Lost in the System and the Two Women Who Found Him (Free Press, Simon & Schuster).

She is published in over 25 countries and her books have been translated into more than 13 languages. Laura is also a freelance magazine writer and has been published in Chicago Magazine, Woman’s Own, The Young Lawyer, Lake Magazine, Australia Woman’s Weekly, Shore Magazine and others.

Inspired by her court victory and the challenges her client faced in rejoining society, Laura founded Loyola’s Life After Innocence, which assists wrongfully convicted individuals and other innocent persons affected by the criminal justice system in order to help them re-enter society and reclaim their lives.

Leslie S. Klinger

Biography

Leslie S. Klinger is considered to be one of the world’s foremost authorities on Sherlock Holmes, Dracula, H. P. Lovecraft, and 19th-century genre fiction. Les is a long-time member of the Baker Street Irregulars, and served as the Series Editor for the Manuscript Series of The Baker Street Irregulars; he is currently the Series Editor for the BSI’s History Series. He served three terms as Chapter President of the SoCal Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America and on its National Board. He is also the Treasurer of the Horror Writers Association. He lectures frequently on Holmes, Dracula, Lovecraft, and their worlds, including frequent panels at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books, Bouchercon, StokerCon, World Horror Convention, World Fantasy Convention, VampireCon, Comicpalooza, WonderCon, and San Diego Comic-Con, and he frequently teaches courses on Holmes and Dracula at UCLA Extension.

Les' work has received numerous awards and nominations, including the Edgar® for Best Critical-Biographical Book in 2005 for The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Short Stories and the Anthony for Best Anthology in 2015 for In the Company of Sherlock Holmes (co-edited with Laurie R. King) and two nominations for the Bram Stoker Award® for Best Nonfiction book. His introductions and essays have appeared in numerous books, graphic novels, academic journals, newspapers, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and Playboy Magazine; he also reviews books for the Los Angeles Times. He was the technical advisor for Warner Bros. on the film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) and served (without credit) in that role for Warner Bros.’ earlier hit Sherlock Holmes (2009). He has consulted on a number of novels, comic books, and graphic novels featuring Holmes and Dracula.

Les attended the University of California where he received an A.B. in English; he also attended the University of California School of Law (Boalt Hall), where he obtained a J.D. degree. He and his wife Sharon have five adult children, six grandchildren, and live in Malibu with their dog and two cats. By day, Les practices law in Westwood, specializing in tax, estate planning, and business law.

Title:  Anatomy of Innocence: Testimonies of the Wrongfully Convicted.

Description

Wrongful convictions, long regarded as statistical anomalies in an otherwise sound justice system, now appear with frightening regularity. But few people understand just how or why they happen and, more important, the immeasurable consequences that often haunt the lucky few who are acquitted, years after they are proven innocent.

Now, in this groundbreaking anthology, fourteen exonerated inmates narrate their stories to a roster of high-profile mystery and thriller writers--including Lee Child, Sara Paretsky, Laurie R. King, Jan Burke and S. J. Rozan--while another exoneree's case is explored in a previously unpublished essay by legendary playwright Arthur Miller. An astonishing and unique collaboration, these testimonies bear witness to the incredible stories of innocent men and women who were convicted of serious crimes and cast into the maw of a vast and deeply flawed American criminal justice system before eventually, and miraculously, being exonerated.

Introduced by best-selling authors Scott Turow and Barry Scheck, these master storytellers capture the tragedy of wrongful convictions as never before and challenge readers to confront the limitations and harsh realities of the American criminal justice system. Lee Child tells of Kirk Bloodsworth, who obsessively read about the burgeoning field of DNA testing, cautiously hoping that it held the key to his acquittal--until he eventually became the first person to be exonerated from death row based on DNA evidence. Judge John Sheldon and author Gayle Lynds team up to share Audrey Edmunds's experience raising her children long distance from her prison cell. And exoneree Gloria Killian recounts to S. J. Rozan her journey from that fateful "knock on the door" and the initial shock of accusation to the scars she carries today.

Together, the powerful stories collected within the Anatomy of Innocence detail every aspect of the experience of wrongful conviction, as well as the remarkable depths of endurance sustained by each exoneree who never lost hope.

SPEAKER: Susan Gibberman of Shaumburg Public Library

TOPIC: Library Science and how to work with libraries to get your book(s) on their shelves.