Kelli Stanley is an award-winning author of crime fiction (novels and short stories). She makes her home in Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco, a city she loves to write about. Kelli earned a Masters Degree in Classics, loves jazz, classic films, battered fedoras and speakeasies. She once owned a comic book store and earned a graduate degree in Classics.

Kelli’s second novel CITY OF DRAGONS will be released by Minotaur on February 2, 2010.

Next Valentine's Day, you'll leave more than your heart behind in 1940 San Francisco ...

                                                                                                             *****

February, 1940. In San Francisco's Chinatown, fireworks explode as the city celebrates Chinese New Year with a Rice Bowl Party, a three day-and-night carnival designed to raise money and support for China war relief. Stuck in the crowd, Miranda Corbie, 33-year old private investigator, stumbles upon the fatally shot body of Eddie Takahashi. The Chamber of Commerce wants it covered up. The cops acquiesce. All Miranda wants is justice--whatever it costs.

From Chinatown tenements, to a tattered tailor's shop in Little Osaka, to a high-class bordello draped in Southern Gothic, she shakes down the city--her city--seeking the truth.

"Children's Day", a short story prequel to CITY OF DRAGONS, will be published by Tor in the upcoming International Thriller Writers Anthology FIRST THRILLS, featuring twelve stories from the bestsellers of today paired with twelve from the bestsellers of tomorrow.

Edited by Lee Child and with an afterward by Steve Berry, it will include stories by ITW bestsellers including Ken Bruen, Heather Graham, Wendy Corsi Staub, F. Paul Wilson, Jeffrey Deaver, and Karin Slaughter, and feature tales by emerging writers Rebecca Cantrell, CJ Lyons, Bill Cameron, J.T. Ellison, Grant McKenzie, and Karen Dionne, Rip Gerber, Theo Gangi, Marc Paoletti and Cynthia Robinson.

Kelli's debut novel, NOX DORMIENDA (A Long Night for Sleeping) (Five Star; July, 2008), won the Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award and is nominated for a Macavity Award (Sue Feder Memorial Historical Mystery).
The book broke new genre ground as the first "Roman noir", a pun on its unique combination of Chandler-esqe hardboiled style and rich historical texture.

NOX DORMIENDA is currently in its third printing. Italian rights (mass market paperback) have also been sold to Mondadori; Greek rights have been purchased by Periplous.

A classic film fan, Kelli regularly blogs about her favorite noirs on Writing in the Dark. You can also find her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter. For more information about Kelli and her books, visit her website at www.kellistanley.com.