Mechanicsburg Mystery Presents...

Episode #47: A Conversation with Sheryl C.D. Ickes (December 12, 2025) Sheryl C.D. Ickes is an award-winning author with the start of a new series, called the Fluff and Flowers Mysteries, which features two tree fluffers who discover a dead body near 100 Christmas trees! We talk not only about the real-life inspiration behind this unusual real job, and how Carlisle PA is featured in Tough Fluff, b...

Episode #46: A Conversation with Andrea J. Johnson (November 12, 2025) The author of the "Victoria Justice" series talks about she her small-town mystery series, her heroines’ loving adoptive mother, and the inspiration for the Delaware beach town where she sets her stories. Since she wrote three books on the writing craft, we talk about her work teaching creative writing and development...

Episode 45: A Conversation with Steve Hockensmith (October 9, 2025) The author of the “Holmes on the Range” series about two cowboys solving mysteries in the wild West saddled up to talk with us about the series, the sometimes contentious relationship between the “Big Red” and “Old Red” Amlingmeyer brothers, and the research that went into the writing. Hockensmith also discussed the challenges wri...

Episode #44: Conversation with Sarah Ickes (September 2, 2025) As we take a fantasy detour from traditional mysteries, Author Sarah Ickes introduces us to the Olde Realm in her Action/Adventure book, “Written Wings.” We get to meet Vectra Tillerman, a powerful guardian who leads two siblings on an adventure to find their kidnapped brother. In a place where Ancient Greeks enter your dreams, mythica...

Episode #43: A Conversation with Radha Vatsal (July 31, 2025) Radha’s talk about her novel “No. 10 Doyers Street” impressed many readers at I Scream for Mysteries, so we brought her on the show to talk about what New York’s Chinatown community was like in the early 1900s, the character of Chinese gangster Mock Duck, what newspaper reporting was like in that time, and the presence of Indian women i...

Episode #42: Conversation with Tj O’Connor (June 26, 2025). A popular guest at Mechanicsburg Mystery events, Tj joins us to talk about “The Whisper Legacy,” the first book in his Pappa Legacy thriller series, and “Dying for the Past” from his Dead Detective Casefiles series. We also talk about how the paranormal Dead Detective series was republished, why he writes flawed heroes, and the care he ta...

Episode #41: A Conversation with Elizabeth C. Bunce (June 4, 2025). The author of the Myrtle Hardcastle middle-grade series talks about the malaprop that helped inspire the five-book series. We also talk about visiting a woolen mill near Kansas City for research, the fun footnotes that she inserts in the Myrtle story, her crafting hobby, and one fan’s wonderful gift to her.

Episode #40: A Conversation with Libby Klein (April 28, 2025). The author of the Poppy McAllister cozy mystery series is moving into women’s fiction (with mystery overtones) with her new novel “Vice and Virtue.” We talk about Layla Virtue, the recovering alcoholic ex-cop musician., her struggles to stay offthe bottle, and her desire to avoid being drawn into a murder investigation. We also talk ab...

Episode #39: A Conversation with S.J. Bennett (April 9, 2025) Sophia Bennett talks about her best-selling series featuringQueen Elizabeth II as an amateur sleuth. We talk in-depth about the fourth book in the series, “A Death in Diamonds,” and discuss whether it’s focus on women’s relationships with men and each other makes it a feminist novel. Sophia also talks about her father’s encounters with...

Episode #38: A Conversation with Rosanne Limoncelli (Feb. 21, 2025) Rosanne has taught writing and filmmaking for more than three decades, and on March 11 she’ll make her mystery author debut. We talk with Rosanne about “The FourQueens of Crime,” her historical novel featuring Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Margery Allingham, and Naigo Marsh. We talk about the inspiration for creating this de...

Episode #37: A Conversation with Heather Weidner (February 7, 2025) Heather is a prolific mystery author with 12 books in four series. We talk with Heather about being the daughter of a police officer and how it influenced her writing, growing up in Virginia Beach, and the debut of her Pearly Girls series in March which she described as “Veronica Mars meets the Golden Girls.” 

Episode #36: A Conversation with Kemper Donovan (January 9, 2025) Kemper is an Agatha Christie fan whose podcast "All About Agatha" is a must hear for her fans. He has turned the lessons learned from the Queen of Crime to write mysteries. The second book in his Ghostwriter series, “Loose Lips,” drops in January 2025, so we sat down with him to talk about his journey from agent to lawyer...

Episode #35: A Conversation with Wendy Neugent (October 21, 2024) Wendy spent a decade seeing the world from the deck of cruise ships, and she used those experiences in her Olivia Morgan Cruise Ship mystery series. Neugent talks with host Bill Peschel about life on board a cruise ship, the perils of performing a magic act, the most beautiful places she saw, and how she transitioned into motherhood...

Episode #34: A Conversation with Katherine Ramsland (July 30, 2024) Where do you begin with the author of more than 70 books including thrillers, serial killer memoirs, biographies, and self-help? Ramsland talks with host Bill Peschel about “Dead Handed,” her upcoming third book featuring forensic psychologist Annie Hunter. She also describes writing “Confession of a Serial Killer” based on interv...

Episode #33: A Conversation with Tom Mead (June 28, 2024) The author of the Joseph Spector series returns with publication of “Cabaret Macabre,” the third book in the series. We talk about the novel’s roots in the grisly and revenge-obsessed Jacobean theater, and (no spoilers!) it’s ironic and twisty endings. We also talk about Tom’s training as a writer, including a first-class honors at universi...

Episode #32: A Conversation with Ruth J. Hartman (June 5, 2024) With so much experience taking care of her own cats, Author Ruth J. Hartman, was bound to begin writing cozy mysteries with the lovable felines. Hear how her writing career got started, and how a bonded pair of brother and sister cats, unintentionally helped her in gathering research for a future book. (Not to mention that she has mul...

Episode #31: A Conversation with Joyce Tremel (May 6, 2024) Do you like apple orchards, picturesque farmland, and a cozy mystery? Deadly to the Core is the first in a new series for Author Joyce Tremel, aka Joyce St. Anthony for her Homefront News Mysteries, and it features new fruit farm owner Kate Mulligan in the area of Gettysburg, PA. She plans to open a cider house, when the orchard's man...

Episode #30: A Conversation with Laurie R. King (Mar. 29, 2024) The author of the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series talks with fellow author, and host, Bill Peschel, as they dive into the latest adventure of her two beloved characters in The Lantern's Dance. It seemed only fitting to have the author of The Beekeeper's Apprentice, which is celebrating it's 30th anniversary of bein...

Episode #29: A Conversation with Tom Mead (Feb. 18, 2024) The author of the Joseph Spector series talks with Bill Peschel about the different inspirations he derived from the mystery writers who defined the Golden Age of Detection. In our first ever LIVE vodcast, we dive into a little sliver of the history of the mystery as Mr. Mead explains the allure to locked room mysteries and how his research...

Episode #28: A Conversation with Victoria Dowd (Oct. 9, 2023) The award-winning author of the Smart Women series talks about the island fort that inspired her latest book (“A Book of Murder”), why her books are populated with nasty characters, the true relationship between series narrator Ursula Smart and her mother, and her journey from defending the accused at the Old Bailey to mystery novels.

Episode #27: A Conversation with Mindy Quigley (Sept. 21, 2023) The author of the Delilah O’Leary series talks with Bill Peschel about her writer’s journey from working with cloning scientist Ian Wilmut to her cozy mystery series set in a fictional Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. We also discuss her diverse cast of characters, how learned to write evocative descriptions, and the perils of fame. Mindy is t...

Episode #26: A Conversation with Nicole Asselin (Aug. 22, 2023). Podcaster and author of the Ballpark Mysteries series sit down with us to talk about Red Sox Nation, her love for all Boston sports, growing up in Mechanicsburg, and cozy mysteries. She has two books in the series, “Murder at First Pitch” and “Concession Stand Crimes.”

Episode #25: A Conversation with Martin Edwards (June 30, 2023). Edwards is the multi-award winning expert on the history of mystery fiction who has also written 22 novels, teaches an online course in crime writing, and serves as president of Britain’s legendary Detection Club. He sits down with Bill to talk about “The Life of Crime,” his magisterial, readable, and entertaining history of the genr...

Episode #24: Join our host, Bill Peschel, and author Connie Di Marco as they dive into her Zodiac Mystery Series.

Episode #23: The author of the Inspector Michael Corravan series and three standalone novels, all set in Victorian Britain, talks with Bill about visiting the last Victorian music hall in London, her experiences working at Christie’s in New York, learning to write in the male voice, and her deep dive into her grandmother’s library as a child. The second book in her Corravan series, “Under a Veiled...