Today the Chicks are pleased to host the 2025 nominees for the Lefty Awards, mostly in the Best Humorous Mystery category (to be awarded at Left Coast Crime: Mountain High Jinks in Denver), with a special guest nominated for Best Mystery Novel. Hurrah that we have three nominees who are part of Chicks on the Case!

We’ve asked each nominee to share a little bit about the inspiration behind their nominated book.

Congrats, Lefty nominees!

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Lefty Nominees for Best Humorous Mystery Novel 

 ° Ellen Byron, A Very Woodsy Murder 

People often ask me why I don’t use my former career as a sitcom writer as a setting for a mystery series. The answer is, I did try once, and it sucked. So, I gave up.

CUT TO: my agent and I brainstorming ideas for a new series.

My husband and I were early adopters of the TV series Schitt’s Creek. We saw an ad featuring comedy geniuses Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara and didn’t care what it was for, we were in. A few years after the show ended, during our brainstorm session, my agent Doug piped up, “You know what would be great? A series that has the flavor of Schitt’s Creek.” I immediately thought of a place I visited on my first trip to CA, Columbia Historic State Park, the largest restored miner’s village in the state. And the “what ifs” began tumbling out. Like, what if Dee was a sitcom writer staring down the barrel of ageism and sexism in her field and impulsively bought a rustic old motel near an historic site in Gold Rush Country as an escape route? Thus, The Golden Motel Mysteries were born. By making Dee a former sitcom writer, I get to tap into my TV experiences without making the series only about that. For example, in A Very Woodsy Murder, the first murder victim’s name was inspired by three real-life writers from my past who I was “not a fan of,” as we say in the biz. It’s like that thing where people go “Tell me you wrote for TV without telling me you wrote for TV.”

BIO: Ellen Byron is an award-winning mystery author playwright, and non-award-winning writer of TV shows like WINGS, JUST SHOOT ME and FAIRLY ODD PARENTS.

BUY LINK: A Very Woodsy Murder

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° Jennifer J. Chow, Ill-Fated Fortune

Weddings are fun, but a wedding to die for? That’s even better. All on the page, of course. Plus, I really wanted to sneak in a traditional cake alternative in my book—and egg tarts would be a dream. P.S. My friends served egg tarts at their 50^th anniversary!

BIO: Jennifer J. Chow did not have a deadly wedding and adores her husband, who willingly gives her quiet space and chauffeurs their adolescents to a million and one activities.

BUY LINK: https://read.macmillan.com/lp/ill-fated-fortune/

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 ° A.J. Devlin, Bronco Buster 

1) I realized there was a lot of lingering emotional baggage for “Hammerhead” Jed after the events in the climax of FIVE MOVES OF DOOM
2) I am a huge fan of HIGH NOON, SPEED and the action hero Jack Bauer from TV’s 24. I also love going to the rodeo and wanted a place for my detective to both wrestle and have an atypical mini-existential crisis in the most ridiculous environment possible.

BIO: Proud AFI alumni and former L.A. resident, proud Canadian screenwriter and award-winning author of the “Hammerhead” Jed pro-wrestler PI mystery-comedy series. 🇨🇦

BUY LINK: https://bookshop.newestpress.com/products/bronco-buster

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 ° Catriona McPherson, Scotzilla 

This is book seven in the series and I had my heroine’s honey pop the question at the end of book six, so the wedding theme was a given. And it was a gift too. The comedy potential in a wedding is endless. As to the plot, I wanted to write about cemetery enthusiasts because I love geeks and I love graveyards. Tying both bits together was a head-scratcher for a while. I laughed out loud in an empty room when I hit on the answer.

BIO: Catriona McPherson is a recovered academic who now makes stuff up and writes it down full-time, in northern California.

BUY LINK: http://catrionamcpherson.com/lexycampbell/302897

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° Rob Osler, Cirque du Slay 

When conceiving a setting for the second Hayden & Friends Mystery to follow DEVIL’S CHEW TOY, I wanted a central location around which the story could spin that would naturally present colorful characters and fast-paced action. I thought of a circus–but not your Ringling Bros. type (fun fact: they were once a brand strategy client of mine!) Years ago, while living in Seattle, I attended a terrific show titled “Teatro Zinzanni” (still in existence!) It began with a fancy dinner and featured various acts, from acrobats to magicians to trapeze artists and so much more! It was an elegant and exhilarating affair. I modeled the circus in my book after Teatro Zinzanni and named it Mysterium. For the book title, I landed what I think is the perfect title for a quozy mystery: CIRQUE DU SLAY.

BIO: Rob Osler is a USA Today Bestselling Author of traditional mysteries featuring unconventional heroes with big hearts in big trouble.

BUY LINK: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/738366/cirque-du-slay-by-rob-osler/

° Richard Osman, We Solve Murders [editor’s note: assume something funnily inspirational or inspirationally funny is inserted here]

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Lefty Nominee for Best Mystery Novel 

° Leslie Karst, Molten Death

I came up with the idea for Molten Death as I thought back on the surprise I’d experienced on my very first visit to Hawai‘i at how very different the Big Island was from what I’d imagined it would be from all the Hollywood movies and glossy tourist brochures I’d seen over the years. But it was different in a captivating, almost magical way, largely because of the island’s active volcanoes. The presence of those volcanoes has shaped not only the island’s geology, flora, and fauna, but also the culture of those who live here—from the intrepid Polynesians who made the long voyage from the South Pacific to the archipelago by outrigger canoe some eight hundred years ago, to the current residents of the “Orchid Isle.”

So when I set out to write a mystery set on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, my biggest desire, in addition to of course crafting a compelling story, was to bring to readers a picture of what the place is truly like—not for tourists, but for those who make their home on this wondrous island.

BIO: Leslie Karst writes the Orchid Isle mystery series, which is set on the Big Island of Hawai‘i and has an emphasis on hot lava, as well as the Sally Solari culinary mystery series, which is set in Santa Cruz, California and is more likely to feature hot lava cake.

BUY LINK: https://www.lesliekarstauthor.com/molten-death

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Readers: Share about something that inspires you.