When Hollywood comes to small-town Connecticut, it should be the stuff of dreams-but when a fading movie star ends up dead, a whole different kind of stuff hits the fan.
Unity Historical Society head and antique household items-stuff!-expert Christian Shaw is on set when actor Brett Studebaker falls from the pulpit during a streaming service shoot in an old church. She, the ‘dads she should have had, ‘ Garrett and Ed, her son Henry, who has a photographic memory and Type-1 Diabetes, and her colorful friends end up helping Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Poli track the killer. Along for the ride: her giant tuxedo cat, Cookie, Ed and Garrett’s big red mutt, Norm, and Joe’s tiny dog, Cannoli. Woodworking, embroidery, old poisons, and vintage weapons all figure in the case, which comes together in a wild scene at the Historical Society on Fourth-Grade Field Trip Day.
Circa l’autore
Kathleen Marple Kalb likes to describe herself as an Author/Anchor/Mom…not in that order. An award-winning radio journalist, she currently anchors on the weekend morning show at New York’s #1 news station, 1010 WINS. She’s the author of several mysteries, historical and contemporary. Her short stories appear in anthologies and online and have been short-listed for Derringer and Black Orchid Novella Awards. She grew up in front of a microphone and a keyboard, working as an overnight DJ as a teenager in her hometown of Brookville, Pennsylvania…and writing her first (thankfully unpublished) novel at sixteen. When her son started kindergarten, she returned to fiction, and after two failed projects, some 200 rejections, and a family health crisis, found an agent for the third book-leading to a pandemic debut. In hopes of sharing what she’s learned the hard way, she’s active in writers’ groups, including Sisters in Crime and the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and keeps a weekly writing survival tips blog. She, her husband, and their son live in Connecticut in a house owned by their cat.