Born in Saskatchewan, Alan Hustak was educated by Jesuits in Regina and Washington D.C.and moved to Montreal in 1967 where he worked as a national television reporter for CTV and as a CBC radio reporter. The winner of a Canadian National Magazine award for feature writing, he has been with the Gazette in Montreal for 18 years. He is the author of several books, including Lougheed, the biography of the former Alberta premier, Titanic: A Canadian Story, and St. Patrick's of Montreal, the Biography of a Basilica, which was a finalist for the 1998 Quebec Writers Federation Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction and a biography of 19th century Montreal surgeon, mayor and banker, William Hales Hingston. His most recent book is The Murder of Mary Gallagher, The True Story of the Ghost of Griffintown. A translator for 30 years, Johanne Durocher Norchet was born in Montreal and studied translation at McGill University.

After working closely with five publishers at The Gazette for more than 20 years, she decided to forge ahead on her own and become a freelancer. For six years she wrote a column in The Gazette on antiques and collectibles.