Blog

Highlights of 2021…

This was a tough year! Yes, we had some laughs and some good times: 2021 saw the publication of two of my books: the Witch Cats of Cambridge cozy A CAT ON THE CASE in January (psst... the kindle is still on sale for $1.99) and, in October, the darker psychological...

read more

Not a “Best of 2021” list

So, I wanted to write a Ten Best list. This isn't it (for one thing, I've included 13 titles — plus a ringer). Instead, these are books that stayed with me and a few that I've been dipping into when I want a break (looking at you "Around the World in 80 Books"). I'm...

read more

Stephen Mitchell’s “The First Christmas”

As many of you know, I still review for the Boston Globe. I don't share all my reviews, but this was a particularly timely book – a Zen take on the Nativity (with a gorgeous illustration). Read it online here. BOOK REVIEW Away in a manger in ‘The First Christmas’ A...

read more

Happy Jólabókaflóðið!

Iceland's Jólabókaflóðið – which translates to "book flood" – is a great holiday born of necessity. Although this northern nation has a great literary history, its island location has at times left it isolated. In the lean years following World War II that meant...

read more

Five compelling questions

That's the name of Shawn Reilly Simmons' podcast, and now I know it's true. Shawn — an author and one of the brains behind the annual Malice Domestic traditional mystery festival — is super easy to talk to, and that means we authors tend to spill the beans about Hold...

read more

Gina Arnold: The Monkees, music, and me

I read Gina Arnold long before I met her. When I was coming up as a music writer, in the '80s, she was already an established critic, with bylines in Spin and the Village Voice. Somewhere in there — in between gigs with Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, and a host...

read more

“Rough and redemptive” raves Fredericksburg Star

Overjoyed about this rave review of HOLD ME DOWN in the Sunday Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star: SEX, DRUGS, MUSIC —AND MURDER For a few rockers—the Rolling Stones are the archetype—the road goes on forever. For many, it detours into ordinary life: work, family,...

read more

#TBT That’s Throw Back Tewksbury!

Want to set your mystery in a rock club? Hiding clues in art? You might want to join this Tewksbury Public Library writing group! At the invitation of the lovely Library and fellow crime fiction author Dale T. Phillips, I did my best to explain not only how I used the...

read more

Understanding monsters, surviving monsters

Nobody in our high school was completely surprised when Joel Rifkin turned out to be a serial killer... (This essay originally ran on the SHOTS crime and thriller ezine, which you can access here (or go to...

read more

Talking about tattoos over at Mystery Fanfare

She rubs her thumb over the F clef on her wrist. A reminder, faded now, of what she had. The cost …  [Thanks to Janet Rudolph for posting this over at Mystery Fanfare! Just in case you missed it, I'm running it here too] Gal Raver, my protagonist, has a tattoo of...

read more