Murder and Mayhem Milwaukee at Irish Cultural Center on November 3, 2018

Murder and Mayhem in Milwaukee is only a month away! This year's daylong celebration of chilling crime and thrilling mystery takes place on Saturday, November 3, from 9 am - 5 pm, at the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center, just west of Marquette University. For tickets ($40 plus ticketing fee for the whole day),  register here.

Boswell will be on hand to sell copies of each author's books, and if you've attended in the past you know you can expect great author panels and interviews, and that tradition of excellence is sure to continue. What a great job Jon, Ruth, Penny, Erica Ruth, and company do!

This year's lineup is criminally good, featuring authors like special guest Lou Berney, the Edgar award-winning author with his brand new novel, November Road, a poignant and evocative crime novel featuring a cat-and-mouse chase across 1960s America in the wake of the Kennedy assassination. Berney's November Road goes on sale October 9, with raves from all the trade reviewers. Library Journal writes: "Berney's follow-up to The Long and Faraway Gone explores relationships between two complicated and realized characters. With depth and genre crossover appeal, this literary crime thriller will please fans of Dennis Lehane or George Pelecanos and also satisfy a wider audience."

From the starred Kirkus review: "Perfectly captures these few weeks at the end of 1963 - all that was lost and all that lay tantalizingly and inevitably just beyond the horizon." The starred Publishers Weekly notes "This is much more than just another conspiracy thriller." Mystery fans are always asking us when we're going to get someone like Dennis Lehane or Michael Connelly at Boswell. The book will be Boswell's Best at 20% off at the bookstore. Buy the book now and read it before you attend Murder and Mayhem.

Also attending Murder and Mayhem is Andrew Gross, author of sixteen thrillers, including five New York Times bestsellers as James Patterson's coauthor. Button Man, Gross's latest historical thriller, brings to life the drama of the birth of organized crime in 1930s New York City from the tale of one family.

Advance reviews are great on Button Man as well. The starred Booklist offers: "Gross' historical suspense novel delivers a gut-wrenching, noirish portrait of Jewish organized crime and labor unionism in 1930s New York. By personalizing key characters, the author immerses readers in a maze of labor racketeering and political and police corruption, upping the nail-biting suspense chapter by chapter." I'm particularly fascinated by the backstory on this one as my father worked in the New York garment industry for much of his working life.

And that's just scratching the surface. The lineup includes Joe Clifford, Angel Colon, Libby Fischer Hellmann, Matthew FitzSimmons, Bryan Gruley, Jennifer Hillier, Chris Holm, Julie Hyzy, Owen Laukkanen, Elizabeth Little, Jess Lourey, Nadine Nettmann, Clare O'Donohue, Milwaukee's own Nick Petrie*, Lori Rader-Day, Tom Schreck, Alex Segura, Victoria Thompson, and Fred Van Lente. Let me give a shout out to three delightful authors whom you might have missed at Boswell - Fred Van Lente, Owen Laukkanen, and Lori Rader-Day.

Don't miss this mystery extravaganza in Milwaukee at the Irish Cultural and Heritage Center, located at 2133 W Wisconsin Ave, on Saturday, November 3, starting at 9 am and running all day. You ask for the big mystery authors - show that you want them by letting these authors know that Milwaukee is a great mystery town. I can vouch that a great time will be had by all. It's the next best thing to a Something-con. Lineup subject to last-minute changes. Here's another ticket link.

*I just finished an advance copy of Nick's next book, Tear It Down. Wow!