Books

HART OF MADNESS

Born into society, nineteen-year-old Ruby Hunt is accused of brutally killing her mother, father, and brother in their Central Park apartment. She is committed to a lunatic asylum at Hart Island for the rest of her life.

Over a century later, a descendant of the Hunt family is murdered, and homicide detective Frank Mead is convinced there is a connection between the current death and that of her great aunt, Ruby. Thanks to the contents of a battered suitcase passed down from Ruby’s caretaker, old photograph, letters, and a diary lead Mead on a convoluted trail of greed, deception, and murder spanning two centuries. Read More…

THE TRIANGLE MURDERS

When a young reporter is pushed from a ninth story window in Greenwich Village, NYPD Homicide Lieutenant Frank Mead soon connects the case to a murder that took place at the same site a hundred years earlier, during the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.

Following the devastating suicide of his wife seven years earlier, Frank abandoned his daughter Amanda and the city he loved.  Now he’s back to make amends and finds he has an urgent and personal reason to track today’s killer.  Amanda, also a reporter and friend of the dead girl, has gone missing.  In the family tenement, Frank finds a “murder book” and evidence of the 1911 murder.  The victim was, in fact, his great grandmother, a seamstress at the Triangle.  Now, with the help of modern forensics and sheer determination, he is able to uncover killers in both centuries. Read More…

TIME EXPOSURE

In present day Washington, D.C., renowned digital photographer Maggie Thornhill discovers a mummified corpse in her basement. She believes it to be her ancestor, famed Civil War photographer Joseph Thornhill.

In 1860, Joseph becomes a spy for the U.S. Secret Service and uncovers a series of murders related to arms profiteering and treason.  As he tracks the man he believes to be the killer, a mysterious civilian he has captured in photographs on the battlefield, Joseph is wounded, captured and tortured by Confederates.  He escapes, brings the proof to Lincoln but the President is assassinated before he can act.

Through Joseph’s diary and photographs, Maggie links the arms company with one still in business today.  What she learns about the elusive civilian and his role in the death of Lincoln and many others will change written history. Read More…

DEADLY PROVENANCE

Mystery and murder surround a Vincent van Gogh painting confiscated by the Nazis and missing since World War II. Digital photographer Maggie Thornhill uses her talents to attempt to authenticate the painting from a 1940s photograph and, in doing so, finds herself following
a trail of the lost work of art.

Encountering deception within deception in the high-stakes art world, she peels the layers back to reveal not one, but two killers. Both art experts have killed for the painting. Now one is dead and the other intends to kill Maggie. To stay alive, she reveals that she has the genuine Van Gogh. Now she must protect the precious painting . . . and herself from the killer. Read More…

PURE LIES

Two women, separated by three centuries, are connected by a legacy of greed, depravity and deceit–a legacy which threatens to make them both victims of the Salem witch trials.

1692, Salem, Massachusetts Born in a time and place of fierce religious fervor, 16-year old Felicity Dale has only endless church meetings and the drudgery of chores to look forward to. When her friends begin accusing neighbors of witchcraft, she fears the devil is in Salem. By chance, however, she discovers that the accusations of her “afflicted” friends are false. What had begun as a youthful diversion has been twisted through seduction and blackmail by powerful men into a conspiracy for profit.  Read More…

TIME LAPSE

Recent Award Winner! Renowned digital photographer, Maggie Thornhill, coins a new definition when a friend turns out to be the fifth victim in a series of grisly Georgetown murders.

As a professor of digital photography, Maggie works with law enforcement to analyze the photographs from the present day killings only to discover their resemblance to the murders of Jack the Ripper.

A century earlier, in Victorian London, brutally murdered prostitutes found in the East End baffle police. Despite help from Dr. Arthur Conan Doyle, little progress is made. High-powered suspects like Prince Albert Victor, the Queen’s grandson, make solving the case considerably more difficult. Desperate, the police turn to actor, John Wilkerson, to recreate the crimes on stage. Read More… 

THE TREE OF LOST SECRETS

Helen Ainsley is a best-selling mystery writer struggling with cancer. She begins to doubt her storytelling ability, so to restore her confidence, she returns to her childhood home in rural Brattleboro Vermont for the serenity she hopes will rekindle her imagination.

Ainsley Hill Farm was originally an Inn dating back to the American Revolution. With a new-found friend, an old golden retriever, and an ancient sugar maple, Helen’s life is about to change.

Initials carved on the tree trunk suddenly appear. . . then disappear. Helen is impelled to investigate. She realizes that the majestic tree is a portal into past injustices and it is up to her to bring closure to the lost memories of the dead. Read More…