Join us in welcoming two crime fiction authors, Sarah M. Chen and S.W. Lauden, as they discuss their newly-released noir novellas. Sarah has published over a dozen short stories in various anthologies, including All Due Respect, Dead Guns Press, Betty Fedora, and Crime Factory. Cleaning Up Finn is her first book which features hard-partying restaurant manager, Finn Roose. When he takes out an underage girl on one of his infamous booze cruises and loses her—literally, it sparks a massive manhunt. Finn is an expert manipulator but his endless lies only tighten the screws on himself and his unsuspecting best friend. This is Sarah’s first signing of her debut novel; come help her celebrate!
S.W. Lauden’s short fiction has appeared in Criminal Element, Dark Corners, Dead Guns Magazine, and Crimespree Magazine, to name a few. His novel, Bad Citizen Corporation, featuring East L.A. cop and former punk rocker, Greg Salem, debuted last year with Rare Bird Books. Crosswise is a fun suspense novella featuring Tommy Ruzzo, a disgraced NYPD cop who heads security at Precious Acres, a Florida retirement community. When he discovers a murdered senior citizen on the bocce ball court, Ruzzo follows the trail of clues, and nobody escapes suspicion.
Tommy Ruzzo is a disgraced NYPD cop who follows his coke fiend girlfriend back to her hometown in Florida. She leaves Ruzzo high and dry just before he's named Head of Security at Precious Acres, a beachfront retirement community populated by wisecracking New Yorkers. Ruzzo is stranded among the local losers until the day he discovers a murdered senior citizen on the Precious Acres bocce ball court.
The bodies pile up as Ruzzo uncovers a dangerous trail of clues that brings everybody in his new world under suspicion.
An East Los Angeles police officer by day and a beach cities punk rock legend by night, Salem is forced into action when his two worlds violently collide. The search for his friend s murderer takes him on a treacherous journey through the murky waters of his hometown, forcing him to explore the dark corners of his sun-soaked world.
Without a badge to hide behind any longer, he enlists the help of his drug-addict drummer Marco to help him solve the crime. Over the course of ten days, they survive vicious beatings, car chases, love triangles, kidnapping, and betrayal on Salem s road to self-discovery.
From Valley Girls to Valley of the Dolls, the L.A. Woman has captured our imagination and redefined the fairer sex. CJ Parker is our lifeguard, Lucy Arnaz, our studio executive, Angelyne, our reality star, and the Black Dahlia, our murder victim. L.A. neighborhoods have spawned the Beverly Hills housewife, the Hollywood starlet, the Van Nuys dominatrix, the Santa Monica Surf Betty and the Manson girls, to name a few.
LAdies’ Night, an anthology by Sisters in Crime Los Angeles, includes stories by Julie G. Beers, Julie Brayton, Sarah M. Chen, Arthur Coburn, L.H. Dillman, Bengte Evenson, Cyndra Gernet, Andrew Jetarski, Micheal Kelly, Susan Kosar-Beery, Jude McGee, Gigi Pandian and Wendall Thomas.
The anthology is edited by Naomi Hirahara, Kate Thornton and Jeri Westerson. Award winning L.A. crime novelist Denise Hamilton wrote the introduction.
