MORE GOOD NEWS !!!!

I’ve finished republishing the Jessica Minton Mystery Series!  Always Play the Dark Horse has joined Letter from a Dead Man,  Bait and Switch, and Shadows of a Dark Past on Amazon. Click  here to order Dark Horse on Amazon in either paperback or Kindle format.  Click here to order through Bookshop.org.  Click here to order through Barnes & Noble.  It’s also available to retailers and libraries through Ingram Content Group.

 

 

Click here to order Bait and Switch in paperback and ebook . Click here to order Shadows in paperback! Click here to order Letter from a Dead Man in paperback or ebook. Click here to order all books on Bookshop.org in paperback and here to order on Barnes & Noble.

 

 

I also have a “surprise” for you!  A new mystery featuring another smart-gal,  Surprise!  Mystery writer Vicki Westlake accepts a challenge to spend a dark and stormy night in a creepy mansion and faces surprises both romantic and deadly.  Click here for details and to order

So, don’t go away! Dusty says, “Stick around!”

Jessica, James and Liz are back for a “haunting” adventure full of dark secrets!

Shadows of a Dark Past

Jessica Minton, her sister Liz, and her husband James join the cast of her mystery radio program on an isolated New England island for remote broadcasts from a reputedly haunted mansion.  Unfortunately, the mansion lives up to its reputation as dark secrets from the past of the island’s leading families lead to frightening midnight somnambulism, ghostly possession, madness, murder, and a séance gone horribly wrong.  And James Crawford’s own past rises up to stalk him under the mansion’s shadowy influence.  Will the quick wits of the Minton sisters and James Crawford be enough to unravel the mysteries of Birdsong Island in time?  A tale of mystery and the supernatural in the mode of The Uninvited. 

Click here for sneak peeks, discussion questions, ordering details, and more!

 

Greetings, folks!  A passion for  the sharp wit, humor, romance, and dark suspense of classic-era film and written mystery inspired my Jessica Minton Mystery series:  Bait and Switch (2015) Letter from a Dead Man (2017), and Always Play the Dark Horse  ( 2021), and Shadows of a Dark Past (2024). The novels feature a sharp, witty, imaginative female lead who’s ripe for a little romance, even if it’s mixed with espionage, deception, or murder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MYSTERIES

An attractive, mysterious stranger; a suspicious package; and Nazi Fifth Columnists plunge Jessica Minton into a nightmare of murderous intrigue! For more on Bait and Switch, click here.

For a sneak peek at Bait and Switch, click here.

To buy Bait and Switch, click here. 

National Indie Excellence Awards finalist in Mystery Division 2016!

 

Recommended Read in 2022 Author Shout Reader Ready Awards

 

 

 

Jessica and Elizabeth Minton, along with Dusty, are back! Now they’re entangled by a business partner with a shadowed past, a predatory socialite with underworld connections, a cut-throat search for stolen jade, two suspicious detectives, an F.B.I. agent from Jessica’s past with an agenda of his own, and a deadly murder frame-up. It’s enough to make Dusty’s fur stand on end! For more on Letter from a Dead Man, click here.

For a sneak peek at Letter from a Dead Man, click here.

For a second peek, click here.

Recommended Read in 2022 Author Shout Reader Ready Awards

 

 

One foggy spring evening in 1946, a young college professor slips into a deserted campus building for a surreptitious meeting with her lover ­- only to be shot dead in the darkness.  Who is the victim?  Who is her murderer?  The answers will only gradually be uncovered after newlyweds Jessica Minton and James Crawford come to that same campus on Long Island Sound. With James returning to teaching, the future should be sparkling for the two. Yet darkness looms.  James is haunted by memories of the war and a mission that he isn’t allowed to tell Jessica about, until their discovery of the missing professor’s decomposing corpse washed up on the beach forces his hand and plunges them both into treachery and more murder.  Dusty’s on the alert for adventure and danger!

For more on Dark Horse, click here.

For a sneak peek, click here.

For another sneak peek, click here.

Top Pick in Author Shout 2022 Reader Ready Awards

 

 

 

The first three books  are available at the following independent bookstores:  Annie’s Bookstop (Worcester, MA). TidePool Bookshop (Worcester, MA), Booklover’s Gourmet (Webster, MA),   Root and Press (Worcester, MA), Tatnuck Bookseller (Westborough, MA), and Toadstool Books (Keene, NH).

 

LITERARY WRITING

The X-Files and Literature: Unweaving the Story, Unraveling the Lie to Find the Truth (editor, Cambridge Scholars Press)

Goddesses Mages and Wise Women:  The Female Pastoral Guide in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century English Drama (Susquehanna UP)

Gothic Landscapes: Changing Eras, Changing Cultures, Changing Anxieties (co-editor and contributor, Palgrave Press)

Please have  fun checking out my web site.  I also have pages on the menu with some neat info on some of my favorite mystery writers and vintage-style screen thrillers. Those of you who like a good cuppa tea might enjoy My Cup of Tea.  And there’s also something here for educators, students, and people who just like history and literature:  Teaching and Academics.  So,  explore and enjoy yourself.   If you find this site fun, interesting, helpful, please spread the word! Get in touch with me. I want to hear from you.  But, remember, play nice.  Natasha is watching.

Copyright Disclaimer for Entire Web Site,  Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. No copyright infringement intended. If there is a problem with use of photographs, contact me at syang@worcester.edu to see if I need to remove them.  Thank you.

last edited 9/29/25