Minnesota Mystery Night

Joel W. Barrows is an Iowa district court judge who presides over criminal and civil trials. Before joining the bench, he practiced law for nearly twenty-three years, including eighteen years as a state and federal prosecutor. He tried cases and argued before the United States Court of Appeals, handling matters involving white-collar crime, cybercrime, narcotics and firearms offenses, public corruption, civil-rights violations, environmental crime, bank robbery, health-care fraud, immigration offenses, child exploitation, and threats against the President. 

Barrows writes the Deep Cover thriller series, built around high-risk investigations, extremist movements, organized crime, corruption, and the perilous undercover missions of ATF Special Agent David Ward. 

Barrows' firsthand legal experience gives the Deep Cover series its procedural authenticity, moral complexity, and intimate understanding of the people operating on both sides of the law. He has also traveled extensively throughout Central America, has written crime fiction since 2006, and is an Amazon bestselling author in Mystery Series and Political Thrillers & Suspense. He lives with his family in eastern Iowa along the Mississippi River. 

Danny Klecko is a Master Bread Baker and an Award Winning Poet. In 1990 he baked a loaf of bread that was used to symbolize peace when President Gorbachev dined with Rudy Perpich.

From 2006-2008 Klecko baked his way across Russia, starting in the Siberian diamond pits and ending along the Black Sea where he helped prepare for the Sochi Olympics.

Klecko' s poetry books have been featured in the Washington Post and the New York Times. He is also a frequent contributor to Metropolitan Diary, the Times longest running column.

Last August Klecko got married to Erica Christ who works at the Black Forest Inn with her family.

The newlyweds live in Whittier where they enjoy their Pitbull Poodle and reading Larry Millet's Sherlock Holmes in Minnesota series.