John Copenhaver is a crime fiction writer, Lambda columnist, blogger, photography lover, film noir enthusiast, high school English teacher.
Awards: Lefty (2025), Macavity (2019) see all
Genres: Mystery
New and upcoming books
Books containing stories by John Copenhaver

Crime Ink: Iconic (2025)
An Anthology of Crime Fiction Inspired by Queer Icons
edited by
John Copenhaver and Salem West

Every Day a Little Death (2025)
Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Stephen Sondheim
(Inspired by anthologies)
edited by
Josh Pachter

Happiness is a Warm Gun (2023)
Crime Fiction Inspired by the Songs of The Beatles
(Inspired by anthologies)
edited by
Josh Pachter
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John Copenhaver recommends

Writers and Liars (2025)
Carol Goodman
"Carol Goodman's brilliant Writers and Liars is a fresh take on the classic Agatha Christie-style closed-circle island murder. While it cleverly and wittily plays with this familiar setup - most of the suspects are mystery writers, after all - it also grounds itself in psychological realism and an exquisitely rendered sense of place. The story hums with the thematic undertones of classical literature, making it not just a thrilling read but one layered with emotional depth. I say this without reservation: Goodman is our generation's Christie!"

The Night of Baba Yaga (2024)
Akira Otani
"Part kick-to-the-solar-plexus martial arts thriller and part poignant queer love story, Akira Otani's spare, tightly plotted The Night of Baba Yaga is a violent and transgressive marvel. The two women at its center - the tough bodyguard Yoriko Shindo and Shoko, the yakuza 'princess' she's charged with protecting - couldn't be more different on the surface, but they awake in each other a desire to live free from the yakuza's cruelty. I read the novel in a breathless flash and still can't shake the sheer power of its ending."

Windhall (2021)
Ava Barry
"At once a cold case mystery and a love letter to Hollywood during the height of its golden age, Windhall is a dark romance of place, from its shimmering Gatsby-esque parties to the shadowy mise en scène of its crime scenes. Barry’s prose is precise, vivid, and seductive; the lure of the past is so potent in the mind of the main character, the intrepid journalist-on-the-case, that you feel his obsession deepening page after page. It's a gorgeous, bedeviling, and compulsively readable debut not to be missed fans of historical mysteries and Hollywood lore."
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