Rob Osler
Author of
The Case of the Missing Maid (Kensington Books, Fall 2024/Spring 2025)
Cirque du Slay (Crooked Lane Books, 2024)
Devil’s Chew Toy (Crooked Lane Books, 2023)
Rob Osler’s debut novel Devil’s Chew Toy, book one in the Hayden & Friends Mystery series, was a 2023 best first novel finalist for the Anthony, Agatha, and Lefty Awards. Book two, Cirque du Slay, releases March 5, 2024. His first publication, Analogue, (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine), won the 2022 Mystery Writers of America Robert L Fish Award for best short story by a debut author at the Edgar Awards. A second short story, Miss Direction, will appear in the September/October 2023 edition of EQMM. Also forthcoming is a new historical series featuring a queer female detective in Chicago during America’s Progressive Era from Kensington Books. On good days, Rob writes, plays tennis, and eats pie in California, where he lives with his partner and head of household, Andy Action Cat.
Books by ROB
The Case of the Missing Maid (Kensington Books, Fall 2024/Spring 2025)
It’s 1898 in Chicago. Harriet Morrow is hired on a trial basis as the first female operative at the Prescott Detective Agency. Wearing men’s shoes and a bowler hat and conducting her investigation by bicycle, Harriet is in many ways an unconventional young woman–not the least of which is being attracted to women. Determined to prove herself and carve a path for women who might follow, Harriet sets out to solve her first case: a maid has disappeared from a south-side mansion.
Cirque du Slay (Crooked Lane Books, 2024)
When Mysterium, an upscale circus arts show, comes to Seattle to begin a sold-out run, the new artistic director is found dead in her hotel suite. Searching for the killer, Hayden and Hollister find themselves surrounded by suspects who have turned trickery into high-flying art. The Russian aerialist? The cowgirl comedian? The Romanian acrobats? The feisty costume manager? The over-cologned ops director? Someone is as evil as they are talented. The big top delivers big-time danger in this hilarious whodunit.
Devil’s Chew Toy (Crooked Lane Books, 2023)
Gay, twenty-something school teacher and part-time blogger Hayden McCall is in trouble. The night’s date is missing, and the police think he has something to do with it. With help from new friends—Hollister, a what-you-see-is-what-you-got-a-problem? Black lesbian, and Burley, a stoner-baker giant—Hayden searches for the truth and the missing guy. But just staying alive is a tricky business when the enemy plays to kill.