ABOUT
Crooked Lane Books was founded in 2014 to publish the highest quality crime fiction titles in both print and electronic editions. In 2020 we introduced a second line—Alcove Press—to publish upmarket book club fiction that explores family, friendship, and community.
We are distributed to the trade through Penguin Random House Publisher Services.
For job listings, please visit our join our team page.
OUR TEAM
FAITH BLACK ROSS
Senior Editor Faith Black Ross has been with Crooked Lane Books since 2016 after more than a decade in publishing. Previously she handled mysteries and historical fiction for the Berkley Publishing Group (Penguin Random House). For Alcove Press, she’s looking for projects with great voice that give her a good laugh (or a good cry, but nothing too mawkish or anything with dead pets), especially if it involves history, fun settings, or food. Faith would love to receive projects perfect for fans of Paula McLain, Lauren Willig, Liane Moriarty, Graeme Simsion, Amor Towles.
MELISSA RECHTER
Editor Melissa Rechter joined Crooked Lane Books in 2019, after graduating with a BA in English Literary Studies from York College of Pennsylvania and a MS in Publishing from Pace University. For Crooked Lane, she is looking for cozy mysteries, suspense and thrillers, horror, historical and traditional mysteries. She’d love to find the next Lucy Foley, Alyssa Cole, or Jennifer Hillier. She loves books that deal with cults, complicated family dynamics, poisonous plants, small town secrets, and locked room mysteries.
MARCIA MARKLAND
Marcia thinks crime fiction writers in general are a most admirable and ingenious bunch, and she is grateful to have been able to work with them over the years as an acquiring editor at The Mystery Guild and St. Martin’s Press. She has worked with Ann Cleeves, Arnaldur Indridason, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, John Lier Horst, Daniel Friedman, Martin Fletcher, Ragnar Jonasson, Con Lehane, and Hannah Dennison, just to name a few.
These days she steers away from cozies but loves most other kinds of suspense writing. Her taste is admittedly a bit off the beaten track, so if you have something unusual to offer, do give her a try. She is looking for great writing, memorable characters, and an extremely clever, never-would-have-guessed-that plot.
SARA J HENRY
Sara J. Henry likes character-driven novels, diverse and interesting characters, intriguing or quirky plots, and good writing no matter how it’s packaged. She has worked with Rob Osler (Devil’s Chew Toy), Ted Flanagan (Every Hidden Thing), Brandon Graham (Half Dead), Scott Blackburn (It Dies With You), Eric Redman (Bones of Hilo), and Steven Tingle (Graveyard Fields). Favorite authors include Frances Fyfield, John D. MacDonald, Mary Stewart, Josephine Tey, Carol O’Connell. Her debut novel Learning to Swim won the Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark awards. She hails from Tennessee, lived in Canada, and calls Vermont home.
TERRI BISCHOFF
Senior Editor Terri Bischoff began her life in books as a bookseller at Kramerbooks in Washington, D.C. After moving home to the Midwest, she worked at a feminist bookstore before purchasing and operating Booked for Murder in Madison, WI. She spent 10 years at Midnight Ink as their acquiring editor and published 36-40 books a year. Terri has a wealth of experience and knowledge in both mysteries and in bookselling, particularly as a book buyer and reviewer. Terri’s interests lie in mainstream suspense and thrillers, LGBTQIA, and diverse characters / storylines.
TARA GAVIN
Tara Gavin has always loved books. She began her career very early—reading every book she could get her hands on. Her favorites were the classics, Women’s Fiction and mysteries.
She has spent years at Harlequin Books, where she pursued her love of Women’s Fiction, working with New York Times bestsellers Diana Palmer and Lindsay McKenna, as well as many others. Moving onto Kensington Books, Tara still worked with bestselling women’s fiction authors, but also was able to pursue her love of mysteries, suspense and diverse author voices.
She is excited to be working with Alcove Press and Crooked Lane Books, where the best of all worlds come together—upmarket, commercial women’s fiction, suspense, and mysteries. She loves complex plots that entertain and have deep, emotional characterization. Her wish list when she acquires for Crooked Lane Books include books in the tradition of: Ruth Ware, Lisa Gardner, and Karen Rose. She loves cozy mysteries that contain humor, a community of interacting characters, and animals or crafts. Examples of her favorite types of stories can be found in the books by Anne Canadeo, J.C. Eaton and Mary Marks.
HOLLY INGRAHAM
Senior Editor Holly Ingraham is an award-winning editor with fourteen years of industry experience. During her career, she has worked at BookEnds Literary, spent ten years as an in-house acquisitions editor for St. Martin’s Press, and launched Holly Ingraham Editorial in 2018. She joined Alcove Press and Crooked Lane Books in early 2022. Holly is looking for upmarket women’s fiction, high-concept book club fiction with a commercial hook, domestic suspense and witty rom-coms. She is especially drawn to complex family dynamics, female friendships, motherhood, and moral dilemmas. Holly would love to receive projects perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah, Taylor Jenkins Reid, Colleen Hoover, and Emily Henry.
Jess Verdi
Senior Editor Jess Verdi joined Alcove Press and Crooked Lane Books in 2022, after well over a decade in commercial fiction and romance editorial, including six years as Senior Editor at Simon & Schuster. An author herself, Jess has a 360-degree view of the publishing industry, and enjoys working with authors to bring exciting, thought-provoking, and heartstring-tugging stories to the world. For her Alcove list, she’s especially drawn to laugh-out-loud and swoony rom-coms, stories exploring gender and sexuality in fresh ways, and novels featuring complex family and/or racial dynamics. For Crooked Lane, she’s looking for feminist and progressive thriller, mystery, and suspense—edgy is great but nothing too dark or gory, please. Throughout her career, it has been of the utmost importance to Jess to work with BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and other historically marginalized voices to bring their work to the publishing landscape—and this remains truer than ever! Jess would love to see projects ideal for fans of Casey McQuiston, Kiley Reid, Tia Williams, Alexis Hall, Mia Sosa, and Lev AC Rosen.
TONI KIRKPATRICK
Toni Kirkpatrick began her publishing career at St. Martin’s Press, where she worked for more than a decade acquiring crime and women’s fiction. Her titles won ALA, Anthony, Nero, Shamus, and RT Book Awards, were finalists for Agatha and Edgar Awards, and made best of year lists on Kirkus, Booklist, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Sun Sentinel. Toni joined Crooked Lane Books and Alcove Press in 2019. She serves on the board of Latinx in Publishing. She is looking for clever traditional mysteries that may or may not lend themselves to pun-ny titles, grittier mysteries, noir, suspense, and thrillers about the complicated relationships between women. She is intrigued by crime fiction that explores social issues or moral questions. Toni is very interested in novels by people of color, especially those writing from Latine, Afro-Latine, or indigenous perspectives. Works that step into speculative territory are welcome.
BEN LEROY
Ben LeRoy is the former founder and publisher of the critically respected crime and literary fiction imprints Bleak House Books (2001-2009) and Tyrus Books (2009-2017) before the later was sold to Simon & Schuster. He is interested in quiet crime novels that explore the human condition through the prism of tragedy and its aftermath. He is not interested in books with car chases, explosions, government officials (police, FBI, CIA, etc.), organized crime, serial killers, or high body counts. He is not interested in horror or sci-fi. He is on an extended hiatus and will not be able to respond during that time.
STEPHANIE MANOVA
Stephanie Manova oversees subsidiary rights sales for Crooked Lane Books and Alcove Press. She handles domestic audio, film, and large print rights as well as foreign rights. Before joining Crooked Lane and Alcove, Stephanie was a foreign rights agent at Trident Media Group. She has also held positions at Macmillan Learning, the Experiment, W. W. Norton, and GenZ Publishing. She holds a B.A. in English Literature from Boston University and a certificate in manuscript editing from the University of Chicago.
MADELINE RATHLE
Marketing and Publicity Manager Madeline Rathle graduated from Louisiana State University with a BA in journalism before completing her master’s in publishing at NYU. She has previously worked at Baton Rouge Parents Magazine, LSU Press, and Peter Lang Publishing. Her favorite genres to read are true crime and historical fiction, but she never says no to a good mystery!
DULCE BOTELLO
Marketing Assistant Dulce Botello graduated with a BA in Arts, Media and Entertainment from the University of Arizona, and with an MS in Publishing from NYU. During her undergraduate studies, Dulce interned at Kore Press, a nonprofit feminist press. She also interned with Macmillan Publishers in the subrights department where upon graduation she joined the special sales division. Dulce loves to read everything and anything that lands on her lap but has a special affinity for dystopian stories, thrillers and the occasional fantasy.
REBECCA NELSON
Editorial and Production Associate Rebecca Nelson graduated from the University of Connecticut with a BA in English and BS in Biology, and she has an MA in English from Kansas State University, where she was the editor in chief of the literary magazine Touchstone. She has interned for Dzanc Books, Amphorae Press, Creative Media Agency, and Ayesha Pande Literary. Her favorite genres include thrillers, true crime, and YA, and she also enjoys bookclub fiction and popular science.
THAISHEEMARIE FANTAUZZI PÉREZ
Editorial and Production Assistant Thaisheemarie Fantauzzi Pérez graduated from the University of Puerto Rico with a BA in Comparative Literature, a minor in Communications and Writing, and a curricular sequence in Italian; she also has an MS in Publishing from NYU. Before joining Crooked Lane Books, Thai interned at Simon & Schuster. She enjoys reading everything from mysteries to holiday romances, and some of her favorite authors are Carmen María Machado and Elizabeth Acevedo.
MIKAELA BENDER
Marketing Assistant Mikaela Bender graduated with a BA in Editing, Writing, and Media and a minor in Communication from Florida State University. She was previously an Agency Assistant at the Carol Mann Agency and the Rights Manager and Assistant to Jennifer Lyons at the Jennifer Lyons Literary Agency. Her favorite genres are romcom and magical realism.
DOUG WHITE
Director of Publishing Operations Doug White began his publishing career as a bookseller and soon moved into publishing operations, purchasing and sales. He has sold books to all major North American accounts while working for publishers and distributors including Macmillan, Diamond Book Distributors and Fox Chapel Publishing. Titles he has sold ranged from NYT bestsellers to graphic novels, science fiction/fantasy, children’s books/games/toys. At Bloomsbury Publishing, Doug ran the US operations group and managed distribution partnerships. He enjoys reading history and science fiction, keeping one eye on the past and another on the future. He is a proud alumnus of Penn State University.
MATT MARTZ
Interested in joining the Crooked Lane team?
We’re looking to fill the the following positions:
Position: Senior Editor, Crime Fiction
Location: New York, NY
Position: Freelance Designer
Location: Remote
Position: Intern
Location: New York, NY