The Los Angeles Times Festival of Books began in 1996 with a simple goal: to bring together the people who create books with the people who love to read them. The festival was an immediate success and has become the largest and most prestigious book festival in the country, attracting more than 130,000 book lovers each year.

Sarah Weinman, a freelance writer based in New York, writes "Dark Passages," a monthly online crime fiction column for the Los Angeles Times. Her short fiction has been published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and several anthologies.

Denise Hamilton, a former Fulbright Scholar and Los Angeles Times staff writer, is an award-winning mystery author and editor. She writes the Eve Diamond series, which includes the Edgar Award-nominated Last Lullaby. Her latest novel is The Last Embrace.

Michael Koryta's first novel, the Edgar-nominated Tonight I Said Goodbye, was published when he was just 21. Koryta's most recent book, Envy the Night, is a 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist in the Mystery/Thriller Category.

Simon Lewis, a native of Wales, is the author of several "Rough Guides to Asia" handbooks and the backpacker novel Go. His second novel, Bad Traffic, is a 2008 Los Angeles Times Book Prize Mystery/Thriller finalist. He divides his time between London and Asia.