Richard J. Cass's Elder Darrow Mystery series-In Solo Time, Solo Act, Burton's Solo, Last Call at the Esposito, Sweetie Bogan's Sorrow, Mickey's Mayhem, and Closing Time-features an amateur sleuth who owns a jazz bar in Boston. Solo Act was a finalist for the Maine Literary Award in Crime Fiction in 2017, and In Solo Time won that award in 2018. Cass is also the author of The Last Altruist, which won the 2021 Nancy Pearl Librarian's Prize for Genre Fiction and was shortlisted for the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction in 2021. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Playboy, Gray's Sporting Journal, ZZYZVA, Best Short Stories of the American West, Tough, and Shotgun Honey. His short fiction has won prizes from Redbook, Writers' Digest, and Playboy. He lives in Cape Elizabeth, Maine.
