BOOKS

Kate Gallison’s Books

Broken Sister

When small-town librarian Mallory Mills encounters a strange homeless woman sleeping in her library she is touched to find that the mysterious woman may be her sister, and horrified to hear the chief of police denounce the woman as a dangerous sociopath. If he is right about Thora McNeill, Mallory is in danger of losing all her money and possibly her life. If the story Thora tells is true, Chief Barker is a murderous pedophile with designs on his fiancee’s little girls. Before Mallory discovers who (if anyone) can be trusted to tell the truth she finds out some startling things about her own family, and even about herself.

The Witches of Washington

Amanda Todham has a nightmare of attending a party where Earl Batters, a powerful political figure, threatens her life and plots terrorism, and Senator Rodney Todd Todham, her husband, makes love to a Russian spy. Turns out her dream is real, a paranormal out-of-body experience. It looks like the end of her marriage, if not of her very life.
Mrs. Bell, the friendly witch next door, learns of her strange new power and invites her to join her book club/coven. The other witches have powers of their own–Mrs. Bell says she reads auras, Zoe says she can ride a broom, Destiny says she can turn men to frogs, Sybil claims to see events as they are happening, and Mary Grace disappears completely, whether she wants to or not. Amanda thinks they are all mad.
Nevertheless she must join these ladies, first of all to protect herself from her husband, who wants to have her committed, then to protect herself from Earl Batters, who wants to have her killed, and last, most difficult, and most important, to save the seven cities menaced by Earl Batters’ plot.

Freddie Zorn and the Dark Invaders (CreateSpace, 2018)

At the outset of the First World War, Freddie Zorn goes to work for British intelligence in Manhattan to infiltrate the German sabotage ring that killed her father. But there’s more to the spying game than Freddie bargained for. Almost by accident she throws one of the wicked Huns down the stairs and breaks his neck, making an implacable enemy of his cruel and powerful brother. Still she moves almost unnoticed through German society in New York, and learns that the Kaiser’s men will stop at nothing to further the aims of the Fatherland: arson, assassination, even poisoning innocent horses. She must use all the skills she learned as a silent movie stunt girl to overthrow the sabotage ring and keep herself out of the hands of a ruthless killer.

Girl on the Run (CreateSpace, 2013)

Teen-aged Carina Nebula (as she calls herself) breaks out of Trenton Psychiatric Hospital and goes home to right a terrible wrong: her older brother, Gilbert, killed their parents and put the blame on her. With her new boyfriend, Spike (unemployed game designer, homeless person, and possibly also a vampire), she sets out to ruin Gilbert’s reputation, steal his money, destroy his software company, and bring him to justice. But it’s harder than it looks. Gilbert has powerful allies, too, and he is still on a killing spree.

The Organizer (KHG Dunn, 2004)

The young computer programmer who wrote the software for his company’s touch-screen voting machines is fired. Resentful, he tries to unionize the company’s employees. But when he threatens to reveal the security flaws in the voting machines, the CEO of the voting machine company teams with a power-hungry state official to silence him.

MOTHER LAVINIA GREY stories

Bury the Bishop (Dell, 1995)

Vinnie Grey, the new young priest at the moribund Episcopal church of St. Bede’s, Fishersville, has been charged by the diocesan bishop with the task of gracefully closing it within three months. She refuses; they disagree quite strongly. This may be why, when Vinnie stumbles over the bishop’s dead body at the Diocesan convention, she is the first one the police suspect of killing him.

Devil’s Workshop (Dell, 1996)

Devil worshipers have invaded Fishersville. Things are bad enough for Mother Vinnie, priest of St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, what with struggling with the Evil One and trying to keep her friends at the young men’s halfway house from going crazy (again). Then the corpse with the missing head turns up.

Unholy Angels (Dell, 1996)

When an evil developer tries to turn the Little League ball field into a resort hotel, no one in town is very much grieved to hear that he has been shot to death. Mother Grey, however, must track down the killer, if only to save the soul of a young boy in her parish. She finds the solution to the crime buried in the complex blood relationships among the long-time denizens of Fishersville.

Hasty Retreat (Delacorte, 1997)

Mother Vinnie takes her parishioners on a weekend retreat to a monastery in upstate New York. But the weekend goes seriously bad when Vinnie’s political enemies show up. Instead of peaceful prayers, shenanigans take place, culminating in the murder by knitting needle of an elderly monk.

Grave Misgivings (Delacorte, 1998)

Stone angels are disappearing from the Fishersville cemetery, only to reappear in antique stores several states away; even the occasional grave is going missing. As she unravels the mystery of what’s happening in her little town, Mother Vinnie uncovers stories of hate and heartbreak dating all the way back to the Great Flood of 1955.

NICK MAGARACZ detective stories

Unbalanced Accounts (Little, Brown, 1986)

When the detective business in Trenton gets so slow that he can’t pay for his daughter’s orthodontia, Nick Magaracz jumps at his wife’s cousin’s offer of a job tracking down lost checks for the State of New Jersey, posing as an accountant. Why not? It looks like easy work, until the bodies begin to fall. A glowing review in the New York Times!

The Death Tape (Little, Brown, 1987)

Nick Magaracz is back at work for the State of New Jersey. Hot on the trail of a terrorist who faked his own death, Nick stumbles over a plot to blow up the Division of Taxation.

The Jersey Monkey (St. Martin’s Press, 1992)

When Nick Magaracz undertakes to protect the CEO of a New Jersey pharmaceutical firm from real or imagined poisoning attacks, he uncovers tainted drugs, illicit sex and murder.

Irene Fleming’s Books

The Edge of Ruin (Minotaur, 2010)

Emily Daggett Weiss and her husband, Adam, plunge into the silent movie business, where they are thwarted by Thomas Edison, menaced by their silent partner, and stalked by a murderer. This book won the historical fiction award for 2010 from the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance.

The Brink of Fame (Minotaur, 2011)

Emily’s husband, Adam, proves false. Destitute and abandoned, Emily goes to Hollywood and takes a job as a skip tracer for the founder of Universal Pictures, only to discover that the object of her quest has been murdered.