Once again, you're catching me doing my favorite thing: Announcing a new book by a terrific author!
I met Kate Flora at a Sisters in Crime event and became an instant fan of her as a person. She's a tell-it-like-it-is woman with a huge heart and generous soul. And then to read her books? Wow! Each one is amazing. Whether you're a true crime lover or a mystery seeker, readers are richly rewarded with attention to detail and an unfolding tale that grips from the first words on.
Read Kate's newest book, Death Warmed Over. Don't worry about getting hooked on her as an author. She has over sixteen titles published and each one is a gem.
Death Warmed Over:
Thea
Kozak is longing for a simpler life. She loves being the trouble-shooter for
independent schools, the Jane Wayne they call in when campus crisis strikes, but
what she really wants is a home, and more time for her marriage, and for fun.
Her dreams of a perfect home are shattered when she finds her realtor, Ginger
Stevens, tied to a chair in the living room of her dream home, surrounded by
glowing space heaters. Ginger utters five indistinct words before she dies. The
house is tainted, and Thea has moved on to managing a drug crisis on the campus
of a Connecticut boarding school, when Maine state police drag her into their
investigation of Ginger’s death. It
seems that Ginger Stevens is the name of a child who died in
New Hampshire many years ago. The police have no idea who their victim really
is. Her boyfriend has disappeared. Her colleagues know little about her, and her
apartment is so sanitized there are few clues.
As she
drives through March slush on New England roads, trouble-shooting for her
clients, Thea is also searching her memory for small details Ginger might have
revealed that could be clues to her identity. A photograph of a former student
at a client school may be a clue. So may be that menacing visit from the former
boyfriend who claims that Ginger sent Thea a package. As she makes her way
through board rooms and alternately coddles and strong-arms wayward headmasters,
Thea’s own life may be in danger. But from whom? Strangers in a mysterious
truck? Or from her client’s own faculty?
Determined to get justice for Ginger, Thea plays
detective until she finally puts the clues together that let her understand the
meaning of Ginger’s five final words.
Early reviews are in and are terrific!
“If you like your heroines smart, brave, tough, and
exuberantly aware of the possibilities of the human heart, look no further than
Thea Kozak.” S.J. Rozan
“Kate Flora does what all the great writers do: she takes you
inside unfamiliar territory and makes you feel right at home; you climb in and
are along for the whole ride.” Michael Connelly
“I’ll follow Thea Kozak anywhere. She is simply one of the
most refreshing and original heroines in mystery fiction today. And Kate Flora
is the rare, graceful writer who pays close attention to how long it takes the
body and the heart to heal.” Laura Lippman
Kate Flora grew up on a chicken farm in Maine where the Friday afternoon trip to the library was the high point of her week. She dreamed of being able to create the kind of compelling, enchanting worlds of the books she disappeared into every week, but growing up in the era when “help wanted” ads were still sex-segregated, she felt her calling was to go to law school and get the job they told her she couldn’t have.
After law school, Kate worked in the Maine attorney general’s office, protecting battered kids, chasing deadbeat dads, and representing the Human Rights Commission. Those years taught her all a crime writer needs to know about the human propensity to commit horrible acts. After some years in private practice, she decided to give writing a serious try when she quit the law to stay at home for a few years with her young sons. That ‘serious try’ led to ten tenacious and hellacious years in the unpublished writer’s corner, followed, finally, by the sale of her Thea Kozak series.
Kate’s books include nine Thea Kozak mysteries, four gritty Joe Burgess police procedurals, a suspense thriller (written under the name Katharine Clark), and two true crime books, Death Dealer and Finding Amy (co-written with Joseph Loughlin, a Portland, Maine Deputy Police Chief). Finding Amy was a 2007 Edgar nominee as well as a Maine Literary Award finalist, and has been optioned for a movie. Kate’s award-winning short stories have been widely anthologized and Redemption, her third Joe Burgess mystery, won the 2013 Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction.
She is a founding member of the New England Crime Bake, the region’s annual mystery conference, and the Maine Crime Wave. With two other crime writers, she started Level Best Books, where she worked as an editor and publisher for seven years. She served a term as international president of Sisters in Crime, an organization founded to promote awareness of women writers’ contributions to the mystery field. Currently, she teaches writing and does manuscript critiques for Grub Street in Boston.
Where to buy? Click through here!
