The Olympia Brown Mysteries
Ministry and murder are unlikely bedfellows, but put them together and they make for a good story and a good teaching tool. My protagonist, Olympia Brown, is a lady minister. Her partner in sleuthing is a gay Roman Catholic priest, more recently, an Anglican priest. Why that combination? Because it raises eyebrows; it gets your attention.
We write what we know. I’m a minister. I know how ministers think and act and the problems they/we confront. Why a gay priest? My sub-agenda in writing these stories is challenging cultural stereotypes.
The original first book in the series, A Deadly Mission, is about a college student who becomes entangled in a nasty and manipulative religious cult. Olympia and Father Jim risk their lives and challenge both the academic and religious establishment to save her life.
Through all the books, Olympia is restoring an antique home in Southeastern Massachusetts. In that house there is a nosy and outspoken house-ghost, Leanna Faith Winslow, Mayflower descendent, who has a story of her own.
When you think about it, all of life is a mystery and I am not the first person to have that idea. What I can do is take chapters of those human dramas I have witnessed over the years, fictionalize them, and weave them into stories that entertain as well as inform. That’s what I want when I read a book, and that’s what I give to my readers. I welcome your thoughts, plot suggestions and questions about my writing or about Olympia herself. Thank you for visiting my page and welcome to my world.