Women of Mystery panel at Lykke Books in New Ulm on May 14. Shannon Baker, Erica Ruth Neubauer and Tammy Klawitter listen as Jess Lourey speaks. (Photo by Amy Zents)

NEW ULM — Three award-winning mystery and thriller authors spoke and signed books at Lykke Books on Thursday.

The “Women of Mystery Tour” event attracted about 25 readers to the independent bookstore and NU Brew Cafe at 203 N. Minnesota St. for a panel discussion, audience question-and-answer session and book signing.

Brie Taralson, organizer and owner of Lykke Books, said she was excited for the “Women of Mystery Tour.”

She highlighted Minnesota’s rich arts environment and the store’s mission to feature high-quality local work.

“We have such a rich arts environment in Minnesota and we have such high quality work that is done here,” Taralson said.

Taralson said Jess Lourey had previously participated in the store’s grand opening author panel, marking the store’s upcoming two-year anniversary.

She said she was particularly excited about new authors Shannon Baker and Erica Ruth Neubauer visiting the store for the first time.

“It’s just fun to kind of look under the hood and hear kind of what goes on in their mind as they’re creating,” Taralson said.

She added that it is fun to highlight local talent “because so often with big box stores, in particular, you only get a small snapshot of books, even though hundreds of thousands of books are published every year.”

Events organizer Tammy Klawitter moderated at the podium, introducing a list of questions to the authors and then opening it for questions from the group.

Shannon Baker discussed her long-running Kate Fox mystery series, set in the Nebraska Sandhills. Her latest book is “Scorched Line,” the 12th in the series. She also spoke about her standalone psychological suspense novel “The Desert Behind Me” and said her Kate Fox series has been optioned for television.

Erica Ruth Neubauer, a former police officer and military veteran, talked about her Jane Wunderly historical mystery series, set in the 1920s. The latest book is “Vengeance in Venice.” 

She also discussed her new series “Two Bodies Are Better Than One,” which features a septuagenarian serial killer.

“I decided to try to write a sociopath that you root for,” Neubauer said.

Jess Lourey, a New York Times bestselling author, Edgar Award and Goodreads Choice nominee, and International Thriller Award winner, discussed her young adult dystopian novel “The Verdant Cage.”

Lourey explained the concept of the walled society in the book.

“The concept of the walled society was inspired by my love of ‘locked room mysteries,’ which are mysteries in which a murder has taken place inside an enclosed space where it is seemingly impossible for it to have occurred,” she said. “I wanted to do that on a big scale, so I created the world of Noah’s Valley, where 400 settlers live inside a massive wall in southeastern Minnesota.”

She said she set the story in Minnesota because it is her favorite state and chose southeastern Minnesota for its natural resources.

“Most of that came from my own experiences growing up in central Minnesota (the farming, the processing of food, the creation of medicines) as well as my love of the Little House on the Prairie books,” Lourey said.

Lourey also spoke about her writing journey. She said her husband took his own life while she was pregnant. An emergency room doctor advised her to write. 

“The poison goes in or it goes out,” she quoted the doctor as saying.

The authors answered questions about their writing process. All three said they aim to write about 2,000 words per day. Lourey and Baker described themselves as plotters who outline their books.

Neubauer said she writes as a “pantser,” discovering the story as she goes.

The panel also touched on narrative techniques and the value of writing for personal healing. Lourey referred to her book “Rewrite Your Life,” which discusses using writing to process experiences.

Lourey said she last visited New Ulm two years ago for the store’s grand opening.

“I fell in love with the store and the town,” she said. “I was able to walk around that first time to see the great architecture, and this time I was able to eat some fabulous German food, which felt like coming home.”

Rhonda Buerkle, a local children’s author of the Woofy series, attended the event. “Writing is kind of a lonely business,” Buerkle said. “But when you find other people and other author. It just only helps sharpen your craft.”