The Friends of the Library present Mystery Night, as part of the 2026 Concord Festival of Authors, featuring Joseph Finder, Jule Selbo, and Janet Raye Stevens! The panel will be moderated by long-time Mystery Night Moderator Kate Flora.
Please register HERE for the event.
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!
Joseph Finder is the New York Times bestselling author of 17 suspense novels, most recently The Oligarch’s Daughter (2025). His previous novel, House On Fire, is the fourth featuring “private spy” Nick Heller. His books have won numerous awards, including the Strand Critics Award for Best Novel for Buried Secrets (2011), the International Thriller Writers Award for Best Novel for Killer Instinct (2006) and the Barry Award for Best Thriller for Company Man (2005). The Boston Globe has called him a “master of the modern thriller.” Two of his novels have been made into major motion pictures, including High Crimes, adapted into the hit 2002 movie starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman; and Paranoia, the 2013 film starring Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, and Liam Hemsworth. A founding member of the International Thriller Writers, as well as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Association of Former Intelligence Officers. Joe is a graduate of Yale and the Harvard Russian Research Center. He lives in Boston.
Jule Selbo is the author of the Dee Rommel Mystery Series (10 DAYS, 9 DAYS, 8 DAYS, 7 DAYS, 6 DAYS) and, yes, the plan is to get down to 1 DAY. They have received starred Kirkus reviews and multiple awards (including the Silver Falchion, Clue and Foreword, and Maine Literary Award nominations). She has also written three historical fiction books, Find Me in Florence, Breaking Barriers – The Life of Laura Bassi, and Dreams of Discovery – The Life of John Cabot. Her short stories can be seen in Thriller Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Magazine. She was a writer/co-executive producer on multiple TV series and has written features for Disney, Paramount, Fox and other studios, including The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, Hercules, Melrose Place, and many more. A native of Fargo, North Dakota, Jule now lives in Portland, Maine.
Meet award-winning author Janet Raye Stevens/Evie Kelley – mom, tea-drinker (okay, tea guzzler), and weaver of smart, suspenseful, stealthily romantic tales. As Janet Raye Stevens, she writes both short- and novel-length mysteries and historical suspense, including the WWII-set Daphne du Maurier award-winning A Moment After Dark and the Beryl Blue, Time Cop series. Writing as Evie Kelley, she’s recently released the first in a young adult sci-fi suspense series, The Nascent Bloom: Book 1 Caught, a Killer Nashville Silver Falchion Award finalist and Claymore Award Top Pick. Janet/Evie lives, writes, and drinks copious amounts of tea at her home in central MA.
For more information on the Concord Festival of Authors, please visit www.concordfestivalofauthors.org.