Topnotch Colorado Mystery Writers: An Evening on the Craft of Crime Fiction
Five accomplished Colorado crime writers — including Edgar nominee David Heska Wanbli Weiden and bestseller Carter Wilson — share what drives their work in a rare group conversation.
Why we picked this
Five writers who actually live here, talking about how they build tension, create place, and make readers turn pages — a conversation about craft that's more useful than most writing workshops and more honest than most author Q&As.
Colorado has a quietly formidable community of crime writers, and this panel at Tattered Cover Colfax gathers five of its best. David Heska Wanbli Weiden, whose debut Winter Counts earned an Edgar nomination and brought the Pine Ridge Reservation to vivid, dangerous life. Barbara Nickless, whose Sidney Rose series has made railroad crime a subgenre unto itself. Carter Wilson, the Colorado-based psychological thriller writer whose novels reliably land on bestseller lists. Cynthia Swanson, author of The Bookseller, known for her meticulous period settings and uncanny atmosphere. Scott Graham, whose national park mysteries pull double duty as love letters to the American West.
The conversation will focus on their writing journeys — the choices they made, the genres they push against from the inside, and what keeps them returning to crime as a form. It is the kind of evening where process becomes visible: how these writers find their subjects, build their worlds, and manage the particular demands of a genre where momentum is everything and the reader is always ahead of you, trying to guess.
Admission is free. A limited selection of books will be available for purchase in store, and the authors will sign after the panel.