Inherit the Dead

of more than thirty suspensenovels, three collections of short stories, an historical novel, a memoir, and two children’s books. She is coauthor with her daughter, Carol Higgins Clark, of five suspense novels. Two of her novels were made into feature films and many of her other works into television films. Mary Higgins Clark is married to John Conheeney and they live in Saddle River, New Jersey.
    MAX ALLAN COLLINS is the author of the New York Times bestselling graphic novel Road to Perdition, made into the Academy Award–winning film. His other credits include such comics as Batman, Dick Tracy, and his own Ms. Tree; film scripts for HBO and Lifetime TV; and the Shamus Award–winning Nathan Heller detective novels. His tie-in novels include the bestsellers Saving Private Ryan, Air Force One, and American Gangster, and he is working with the Mickey Spillane estate to finish a number of works by Mike Hammer’s creator. He lives in Muscatine, Iowa, with his wife, Barb, with whom he writes the popular “Trash ’n’ Treasures” mystery series ( Antiques Roadkill ).
    JOHN CONNOLLY was born in Dublin, Ireland, and is the writer of the Charlie Parker series of mystery novels, the latest of which is The Wrath of Angels; the stand-alone novel The Book of Lost Things; and the Samuel Johnson stories for younger readers. He is also the host of the 2XM radio show ABC to XTC, which allows him to indulge his love of the music of 1977 to 1989.
    JAMES GRADY ’s first novel became the Robert Redford movie Three Days of the Condor . Grady has received Italy’s Raymond Chandler Medal, France’s Grand Prix du Roman Noir and Japan’s Baka-Misu literature award. In 2008, London’s Daily Telegraph named Grady as one of “50 crime writers to read before you die.”
    HEATHER GRAHAM is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more than a hundred novels, including suspense, paranormal, historical, and mainstream Christmas fare. She lives in Miami, Florida, an easy shot down to the Keys, where she can indulge in her passion for diving. Travel, research, and ballroom dancing also help keep her sane; she is the mother of five, and also resides with two dogs and two cats. She is CEO of Slush Pile Productions, a recording company and production house for various charity events.
    BRYAN GRULEY ’s Starvation Lake series has been nominated for an Edgar and won the Anthony and Barry awards. Gruley also is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist for Bloomberg News in Chicago, where he lives with his wife, Pam. He’s working on his fourth novel.
    CHARLAINE HARRIS , author of more than thirty novels, is best known for her novels about telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse. A daughter of the South, she now lives in Texas.
    VAL McDERMID escaped from a mining community in Scotland to Oxford University. She abandoned an award-winning career in journalism for fiction and has published twenty-six crime novels. Her bestselling books are translated into more than forty languages and she has won many awards including the Gold Dagger, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Lambda Pioneer Award, and the Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement. She lives in the north of England with her American wife, her son, and their dog.
    S. J. ROZAN , the Edgar-winning author of fourteen novels and dozens of short stories, was born in the Bronx and lives in Manhattan. Her latest novel, as half of the writing team of Sam Cabot, is Blood of the Lamb.
    JONATHAN SANTLOFER is the author of five novels, including The Death Artist, which has been translated into eighteen languages and the Nero Award–winning Anatomy of Fear . He is the coeditor, contributor, and illustrator of The Dark End of the Street; editor and contributor of L.A. Noire: The Collected Stories; and editor, contributor, and illustrator of Akashic Books’ The Marijuana Chronicles . Also an artist, Santlofer has been the recipient of two National Endowment for Arts grants and sits on the board of Yaddo, the oldest arts organization in the United States. He lives in New York where he is at work on a new novel.
    DANA STABENOW has written twenty-nine novels, many short stories, has edited anthologies and wrote the “Alaska Traveler” column for five years for Alaska magazine. She lives in Alaska.
    LISA UNGER is a New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling author whose novels have sold more than one and a half million copies in the United States and have been translated into