Today on my blog I’m happy to have a Spotlight on Author Susan Moore Jordan and her Augusta McKee Mystery Series. Check them out and see what you think.
Cincinnati, 1963: One-time opera singer Augusta McKee, professor of music on two college campuses, is successfully navigating her busy life in stiletto-shod feet—until she comes up against a shocking road block. Halfway through rehearsals for a production of “The Pirates of Penzance,” Augusta receives the awful news that her leading lady has been murdered. But “the show must go on,” and while forging ahead to make that happen, Augusta stumbles upon pertinent information which could lead to the identity of the perpetrator.
First, though, Augusta must convince Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell that what she has uncovered can help him solve the case. While the strong-willed diva and the dashing detective clash at their first meeting, their dissonant chord becomes harmonious when Augusta and Malcolm continue to cross paths and discover a shared passion for opera … and a strong desire to catch the killer.
A murder mystery, The Case of the Slain Soprano is a departure for Susan Moore Jordan, whose previous historical novels follow characters as they deal with physical, mental, and emotional life challenges with the help of music. Jordan, a singer, teacher, and former musical theater director, has written about her adventures in “More Fog, Please”: 31 Years Directing Community and High School Musicals. She resides in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. (Goodreads)
Cincinnati, September 1963: Augusta McKee, former opera singer and current professor of voice on two college campuses, finds herself immersed in mystery from the top of her well-coiffed head to the tip of her beloved stilettos.Augusta’s beau, handsome Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, is dealing with a tough case: the murder of a “John Doe”—a victim shot gangland-style and dumped from a car near Parkside Playhouse in lovely Eden Park, not far from a pagoda reputedly haunted by the ghost of a woman murdered decades earlier. And to add to the mystery, a possible eyewitness has vanished into thin air. While Malcolm is busy chasing down leads, Augusta’s attention is focused on the student production she is directing, dramatic scenes from opera which feature on-stage ghosts—just in time for Halloween. Offstage, eerie happenings on the Conservatory campus and a menacing ex-student become increasingly troubling distractions, until Augusta begins to wonder: could Malcolm’s case and her mysterious spirits somehow be connected? Her search for the answer soon leads our favorite sleuth to the alarming realization that ghosts are the least of her worries. (Goodreads)
Cincinnati, May 1964: When a world-famous tenor collapses on the stage of Cincinnati’s Music Hall during a May Festival performance of the opera “Carmen” and dies on the way to the hospital, foul play is suspected. The victim had collected more than his fair share of enemies, but who could have hated him enough to want him dead? As a member of the cast, the always elegant, stiletto-shod Augusta McKee, singer/professor/amateur sleuth, is onstage and witnesses the tragedy up close and personal. However, when her beau, charismatic Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, becomes lead investigator, Augusta offers her assistance, convinced that her contacts in “Opera World” will provide valuable insight as Malcolm searches for answers. Somewhat reluctantly, he agrees—and the pair unofficially join forces to track down a killer.With a murderer on the loose and a show that must still go on, time is of the essence in this thrilling, heart-stopping, third “Augusta McKee Mystery.” (Goodreads)
September 1964: Aside from babysitting a colleague’s rambunctious dog, life seems serene at the McKee home in Cincinnati—until Augusta’s beau, Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, receives a chilling phone call in the middle of the night from a mysterious crime kingpin.Midnight or not, friends and colleagues immediately convene. And within hours, the hunt for Augusta McKee—amateur sleuth, former opera singer and professor of music, last seen at a production staff meeting for her spring musical at Cliffside College—is on. Malcolm learns how perilous her situation is and what is being demanded in exchange for her safe return. He and his partner, Detective Jim Edmonds, muster their department’s forces and assistance from the FBI as the danger mounts. To discover Augusta’s location, Malcolm must piece together a trail of cryptic clues from Augusta herself. There is a deadline to meet, and time grows short. Where is Augusta? Can Malcolm find her in time to save her life?And can someone PLEASE stop that dog from barking? (Goodreads)
After a lifetime as a musician–performer, teacher, musical theater director–Susan Moore Jordan wrote and published her first novel in 2013 at the age of seventy-five, and she hasn’t stopped since.
Her first novel,How I Grew Up, was released in 2013. Two additional novels followed: Eli’s Heart in 2014 and You Are My Song in 2015, completing “The Carousel Trilogy.” A fourth novel, Jamie’s Children, was released in July, 2016.
Memories of Jake, the first book in “The Cameron Saga,” was followed by Man with No Yesterdays. Set in the Vietnam War era, the books follow the impact of military service and its aftermath on two brothers.
In May, 2018, Susan Jordan added the genre “cozy mystery” to her novels when she released The Case of the Slain Soprano. In November of 2018 the second book in the “Augusta McKee Mystery Series” was released: The Case of the Disappearing Director. In April, 2019, the third book in the series, The Case of the Toxic Tenor, was released.
Jordan attended the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati and moved to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania in 1971 with her husband and three children.
Beginning in 1984, Jordan directed some eighty local community and high school musical theater productions. She retired from directing in 2015 after over thirty years and wrote about her adventures in “More Fog, Please”: Thirty-One Years Directing Community and High School Musicals, released in November, 2015.
All of her books are available on Amazon in paperback, and the novels are also available as Kindle editions. Paperback copies of Jordan’s books can be purchased locally at the Pocono Cinema and Community Center in East Stroudsburg whenever the theater is open.
On Feb. 2, 2018, The Case of the Slain Soprano was named a finalist in the 2018 Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards in the category Books for Adults (fiction).
All of Jordan’s books are “music-centric” (in the words of one reviewer), and readers comment on the strength of the element of music included in her work. Jordan sees writing as another way to share the music she loves, which she considers “the most powerful force in the universe.”
Articles by Susan Moore Jordan have appeared in Musical America and The Guardian, and on August 2, 2019, she appeared on Hour Three of “The Today Show” as a Super Senior.
For more information, please visit her website at www.susanmoorejordan.com and her Amazon author page at http://ow.ly/XCjYX
The Case of the Slain Soprano introduced Augusta McKee, a singer and college music professor who resides in Cincinnati in the mid-1960s. This volume, released in April 2018, was a Finalist in the 2018 Wishing Shelf Book Awards and a Semi-Finalist in the 2019 Kindle Book Awards. The Case of the Disappearing Director followed in October 2018, and The Case of the Toxic Tenor in April 2019. Book four, The Case of the Purloined Professor, was released this week.
Before introducing her “Augusta McKee Mystery Series,” Jordan had written and published several “music-centric” historical novels and one non-fiction bookbetween 2013-2017. She was recently recognized as a “Super Senior” by The Today Show for beginning a new career as a writer at the age of seventy-five and producing eleven books in the past six years. For over thirty years, Jordan was a respected stage director of community and high school musical productions in the Poconos. She established a private voice studio in 1979 which continues forty years later with a current enrollment of seventeen students.
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