Presents: Writing Mystery and Intrigue

Join us for a conversation with authors Camille Cabrera ALM '23, Carleton Eastlake JD '72, Kemper Donovan JD '04 about writing mystery novels and creating intrigue in story!

Camille Cabrera ALM '23

Camille Cabrera is a #1 bestselling American novelist and entrepreneur. She crafts mystery and thriller novels. Her first cozy mystery novel, The Mystery of Mistletoe Motel, reached the #1 spot on Amazon’s Mystery Romance chart. Cabrera's newest cozy mystery novel, Lady Cavendish's Christmas Caper, debuted in the top 10 on four Amazon charts. Below The Water, her first young adult fantasy mystery, reached the #1 spot on Amazon's Hot New Release chart for Teen & Young Adult Alternative History. When not crafting mystery novels, you can find Cabrera scouring the newest local coffee shops in Los Angeles.

Carleton Eastlake JD '72

CARLETON EASTLAKE was named a 2022 Who? New! debut author by the Brooklyn Book Festival for

his novel Monkey Business. He has also shared in Edgar and Saturn awards for his work in television and is a past President of PEN Center USA and a former board member of the Writers Guild of America West. He now sits on the WGAW Membership & Finance, Strike Fund, and Television Credits Committees and is a member of PEN International’s Writers Circle. He graduated from UCLA in political science and psychology and from Harvard Law School with a concentration in law and the social sciences. After a career in public policy and consumer protection law, being hired as a Co-Executive Producer on Steven Spielberg’s series seaQuest DSV confirmed him as a television writer-producer as well. In recent years he has been affiliated with USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies as a media consultant and futurist on projects related to national defense. He has also served as an instructor in the UCLA Film School’s Professional Screenwriting graduate certificate program and appeared as a guest panelist at the American Film Institute, Emerson College, and Harvardwood. His wife Loraine Despres is a best-selling novelist, television writer, and tree-farmer. They live in Los Angeles, California.

Kemper Donovan JD '04

Kemper Donovan is the author of The Busy Body, a national bestseller and the first in the Ghostwriter Mystery series. He is also the author of the novel The Decent Proposal, and the host of the podcast All About Agatha, dedicated to the one and only Agatha Christie, in which guise he has been featured in the L.A. Times, made appearances on BBC TV and Radio New Zealand, lectured at multiple festivals and conferences, and written for the official Agatha Christie website, agathachristie.com. He attended Stanford University and Harvard Law School, and now lives in Southern California with his husband and two daughters.