Minnesota Mystery Night

Toni Halleen worked for many years as an employment law attorney and now runs the law firm Schaefer Halleen. She won a Mentor Prize in Fiction from the Loft Literary Center, and her short fiction has been published in Structo, Wigleaf, Gravel, the StarTribune, and elsewhere. She also authored an award-winning musical, “Soulless, Bloodsucking Lawyers.” Her debut novel, THE SURROGATE, was published by HarperCollins in 2021, followed by THE GOOD SAMARITAN in 2025. Toni holds a B.A. in Women’s Studies from Mount Holyoke College, and a J.D. from the University of Minnesota. She is an avid improviser and used her stage experience to develop and teach “Think on the Spot” skills to hundreds of professionals. She lives in Minneapolis. 

S.L. Smith was born in Saint Cloud, Minnesota, and attended Saint Catherine University in Saint Paul. After thirty-two years with the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, serving in a variety of planning, administrative, and management roles, she retired to concentrate on mystery writing. Also seeking to preserve the stories of beloved relatives, Smith writes memoirs for her family. Her enduring attachment to family and her love for Minnesota is apparent in the ribbon that winds its way through the Pete Culnane mystery series. She lives in St Paul, Minnesota.