The Old Stuff Mysteries
THE STUFF OF MURDER
THE STUFF OF MURDER
THE STUFF OF MURDER
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 to his death from the pulpit i
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 to his death from the pulpit 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 in his investigation. (As does 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.
THE STUFF OF Mayhem
THE STUFF OF MURDER
THE STUFF OF MURDER
When Unity, Connecticut’s Independence Day cannon firing ends in disaster, historian Christian Shaw finds herself in the middle of a murder case – and a land-use dispute involving a possible Revolutionary War battlefield. Worse, her new client is hanging around the Historical Society looking for ideas for a Regency romance reality show.
When Unity, Connecticut’s Independence Day cannon firing ends in disaster, historian Christian Shaw finds herself in the middle of a murder case – and a land-use dispute involving a possible Revolutionary War battlefield. Worse, her new client is hanging around the Historical Society looking for ideas for a Regency romance reality show. And then she’s invited to 90-something Amy Taylor’s bat mitzvah. Now, Christian, her new man, Assistant State’s Attorney Joe Poli, son Henry, who has a photographic memory and Type-1 Diabetes, and the colorful cast track the killer through artifacts, land records – and the annual zucchini glut, culminating in a wild and dangerous scene on Amy’s big day.
3/25/25 Level Best Books!
Preorder soon!
The Ella Shane Mysteries
A FATAL FINALE
Ella is playing Romeo when her Juliet apparently drinks real poison and drops dead onstage. Soon the Duke has come to New York to find out what happened to the girl, who was his runaway cousin. They find themselves looking for a killer, and drawn together in an unavoidable, and quite possibly unresolvable, attraction. Can Ella find – and stop – the murderer? Can a diva look at a Duke…and does she even want to? We’ll find out before the final curtain...
An Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice, and named Favorite Debut of 2020 by Aunt Agatha's!
Buy at Amazon, B&N, Kensington, or wherever you buy your books!
Ella's Second Outing!
A FATAL FIRST NIGHT
Premiere night for the Ella Shane Opera Company's new production of The Princes in the Tower doesn't quite go according to plan when a man is murdered backstage and Ella's Richard III is the prime suspect. Ella and Tommy find themselves trying to discover what really happened, while putting on a show every night. If that's not enough, her reporter friend Hetty is finally off hats and onto a high profile murder trial. As the cast try to figure out the interlocking mysteries -- with some help from an unexpected visitor -- their happy show turns out to be much more dangerous than expected. Will everyone survive to the final curtain?
Now on Aunt Agatha's Best of:: History Mystery 2021 list!
On sale now at Kensington, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and your favorite bookstore!
Murder, Matrimony...and a mother in law?
A FATAL OVERTURE
Trouser diva Ella Shane faces her biggest challenges yet: murder, marriage – and her potential mother-in-law. The mother and aunts of her swain, Gilbert Saint Aubyn, Duke of Leith, show up at her townhouse demanding to know when she plans to marry him…only to find a body in their hotel bathtub. As Ella and Gil try to work out their marriage contract, Ella’s newspaper reporter friend Hetty gets mixed up in the murder…and an old friend of Ella’s informs her that someone is trying to take out a contract on Gil. They may be able to work out a happy ending – but it won’t be safe, or easy!
Where you buy books, or here: A Fatal Overture (An Ella Shane Mystery): Marple Kalb, Kathleen: 9781496727251: Amazon.com: Books
A Fatal Reception
The WEDDING You've been Waiting for!
Gilded Age trouser diva Ella Shane and her Duke are at long last headed for the altar…but they’ll have to handle a murder, a shipwreck, a questionable Polish prince, and any number of other complications on the way. Continuing the highly-praised series featuring an Irish-Jewish Lower East Side orphan who found fame and fortune as a singer of male soprano roles, the latest installment follows Ella and her surprisingly diverse cast of family and friends through mystery and misadventure…and into the greatest challenge of all for an independent-minded woman and her Victorian swain: matrimony!
Out now from Level Best Books!
Buy here: A Fatal Reception: An Ella Shane Mystery: Kalb, Kathleen Maple: 9781685126131: Amazon.com: Books
A Fatal Honeymoon
FREE ELLA NOVELLA!
A blissful Niagara Falls honeymoon for Gilded Age trouser diva Ella Shane and her new husband the Duke turns deadly with a murder during a theatre outing -- with a dear friend's beloved the prime suspect. Now, the couple will have to clear his name, unravel a nefarious plot dating back to the Civil War, and protect an ingenue in desperate straits...all while staying incognito. With the surprisingly diverse and open-minded (but period-appropriate) cast this acclaimed series is known for, it's a delicious adventure...and if Ella doesn't win a duel on the Maid of the Mist -- it may be her last!
Free where you get your ebooks: https://books2read.com/u/br2eXk
About Me
Author. Anchor. Mom...not in that order.
Kathleen Marple Kalb grew up in front of a microphone, and a keyboard. She started her radio career as a teenage DJ at a small station in her hometown of Brookville, Pennsylvania, and despite a brief flirtation with advanced study in history before taking her B.A. at the University of Pittsburgh (her mother will never forgive her for turning down an assistantship at William and Mary), worked her way up through newsrooms in Pittsburgh, Vermont and Connecticut, to New York. But she never wore her Phi Beta Kappa key again after her first day at KDKA, when she accidentally hung up on a U.S. Senator. Her broadcast career went significantly better after that, including a number of regional Edward R. Murrow awards in Vermont, and her current post as a weekend morning anchor at 1010 WINS, New York’s top all-news station.
At age sixteen, she wrote her first historical novel, which thankfully did not find a publisher, though a couple of editors did actually read it. Her Vermont story, "Bad Apples" was recently named an Honorable Mention in the 2021 Black Orchid Novella Award contest. She lives in Connecticut with her husband and son in a house owned by their cat.
ELLa and the duke Return!
Our Diva and Duke unravel a 40-year-old mystery that could threaten the succession to the British Throne -- and confront a vile blackmail plot against a friend's sibling, a man living as a woman...all during Ella's debut season at the Met!
4/29 -- Level Best Books!