The Friends of the Concord Free Public Library present CFA Mystery Night 2023, moderated by Kate Flora! This year's event features authors Gledé Browne Kabongo, John Nardizzi, and Sharon Healy Yang. 

Kate Flora's fascination with people's criminal tendencies began in the Maine attorney general's office. Deadbeat dads, child abusers, and employment discrimination aroused her curiosity about human behavior. The author of twenty-four books spanning genres including crime fiction, true crime, memoir, nonfiction, and short stories, Flora's been a finalist for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer awards and twice won the Maine Literary Award for crime fiction. She's a former international president of Sisters in Crime, and a founder of the New England Crime Bake and Maine Crime Wave mystery conferences. She blogs with the Maine Crime Writers. When not conducting research for her novels and nonfiction, Kate can often be found in her garden, waging war against the woodchucks and her husband’s lawnmower. She divides her time between Maine and Massachusetts. The CFA Team thanks Kate for her many years leading Mystery Night!

Gledé Browne Kabongo writes unputdownable psychological thrillers. She is the multi award-winning author of the Fearless Series, Our Wicked Lies, Fool Me Twice, and Conspiracy of Silence. Her obsession with suspense and diabolical characters started as a kid growing up in the Caribbean when an Australian radio drama called The Castlereagh Line hit the airwaves. When she’s not busy cooking up characters that cause mayhem, Gledé can be found trying to replicate her mother’s famous Caribbean Rum Cake recipe. She lives outside Boston with her family.

John Nardizzi is an award-winning writer and investigator. His crime novels have won praise for crackling dialogue and pithy observations of detective work, and earned a 2022 Shamus Award nomination for Best PI Paperback. He speaks and writes about investigations in numerous settings, including World Association of Detectives, Lawyers Weekly, Pursuit Magazine and PI Magazine. His work on innocence cases led to the exoneration Gary Cifizzari and James Watson (he was awarded the Arc of Justice for the Watson case in 2021), as well as million dollar settlements for clients Dennis Maher and the estate of Kenneth Waters, whose story was featured in the film Conviction. Prior to his PI career, he failed to hold any restaurant job for longer than a week. He lives near Boston, Massachusetts. www.johnnardizzi.com

Sharon Healy Yang lives in Massachusetts with her husband, her cat, and an enormous collection of vintage films. Fascination with mysteries and the 1940s inspired her novels’ recapturing the era’s wit, adventure, romance, and suspense. Before retiring, Yang was a college English professor, known on the campus as the lady with the 1940s hats. Now she enjoys writing full time. Bait and Switch, Letter from a Dead Man, and Always Play the Dark Horse are the first three novels in her mystery series, featuring a 1940s smart-talking gal, Jessica Minton; her smart alec sister; a mysterious and quick witted romantic interest; and a wise-guy cat, Dusty. Due late this year is the next entry, Shadows of a Dark Past, a ghost story.

For more information on CFA events, please visit www.concordfestivalofauthors.org. 

This program is made possible by the generous support of the Friends of the Concord Free Public Library, a patron-supported non-profit organization.