What makes a modern heroine?
- October 10, 2018 at 7 PM
- Lawrence Library, 15 Main Street, Pepperell, MA 01463.
Toni L.P. Kelner (a.k.a. Leigh Perry): This Agatha award winner is two authors in one. As Leigh Perry, she writes the Family Skeleton series featuring a walking talking skeleton named Sid. The series debuted with A SKELETON IN THE FAMILY in September 2013, and the fifth, THE SKELETON TAKES MAKES A FRIEND, is due out in November. As Toni L.P. Kelner, she's the author of the eight Laura Fleming mysteries and the three books in the "Where are they now?" series (all available as ebooks and audio downloads). She also co-edited seven urban fantasy anthologies with New York Times bestseller Charlaine Harris. In between novels and short stories, she sneaks in short stories about pirates, PIs, zombies, Sherlock Holmes cosplayers, and demonic phone calls. By either name, she has lived just north of Boston for over 30 years, while maintaining the Southern accent earned by growing up in northern Florida and North Carolina. She is married to fellow author Stephen P. Kelner and has two daughters, one guinea pig, and an ever-increasing number of books.
Susan Oleksiw: has been writing since she was a student in the 1960s, but her first publication in the mystery field came in 1988, with the publication of A READER'S GUIDE TO THE CLASSIC BRITISH MYSTERY. She is the author of three series. The Pioneer Valley series follows Felicity O'Brien, who has just inherited her parents' farm in rural Massachusetts. In the first book, BELOW THE TREE LINE (2018), Felicity discovers a woman's body in her woods, and copes with a stranger digging secretly on her land. The Mellingham series features Chief of Police Joe Silva, who appears in five books. In the Anita Ray series an Indian American photographer investigates murder at a resort in South India. Susan was a co-founder of Level Best Books, which publishes an annual anthology of crime fiction, and a co-founder of The Larcom Press and The Larcom Review.
Connie Johnson Hambley: grew up on a small dairy farm just north of New York City. When she was a young girl, an arsonist burned her family's barn to the ground. From that experience grew the novels that have become THE CHARITY, THE TROUBLES, and THE WAKE. THE TROUBLES, the second book in the series and a story of terrorism and identity found, was published May 2015 and won Best Fiction at the EQUUS Film Festival in New York City. The third book in the trilogy, THE WAKE, was released in September 2017. Her short story, "Giving Voice," was published by Level Best Books in WINDWARD: Best New England Crime Stories in 2016, and "Black Ice" is included in SNOWBOUND, Level Best Book's 2017 anthology.
