Judy Hadley of Key West, Florida, has won a walk-on cameo appearance in bestselling author Meg Muldoon’s next novel, “Meltdown in Christmas River: A Christmas Cozy Mystery Book,” which is due out this August.

Muldoon, author of more than a dozen “cozy” mystery titles and a run-away success story in the self-publishing world, was a featured panelist at the recent Mystery Fest Key West. The “character placement” contest was an early registration promotion for the fest, which took place June 16-18 at the DoubleTree Resort by Hilton Grand Key.

Hadley, a retired speech, drama and debate teacher from Louisiana who “found a home” with The Fringe Theater (originally the People’s Theater) in Key West, Florida, and co-conceived the acclaimed Shakespeare in Schools program that has been underway for eight seasons in the Florida Keys, got to choose whether to be a “good” character or a “bad” one. She chose the “more interesting bad-guy role.”

Mystery Fest Key West 2017 was sponsored by the Monroe County Tourist Development Council, the Key West Citizen daily newspaper, Mystery Writers of America – Florida Chapter, the Florida Keys Council of the Arts and supported by the Marion Stevens Fund at the Community Foundation of the Florida Keys and the Helmerich Trust. For more information on the annual celebration of sleuthing, visit mysteryfestkeywest.com.