Susan Moore Jordan

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.

–And more important, are the two remaining members in danger?

Cincinnati, October 1918-- As the Spanish influenza rages around the world, a body is buried behind a residence in an upscale neighborhood and concealed from discovery. What a perfect time to hide a crime …

Cincinnati, October 1965-- Fritz, the irrepressible six-month-old puppy belonging to Professor of Music Augusta McKee and her husband of six months, Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, digs up a human bone in a neighbor’s yard where a flagstone patio is being replaced. An investigation quickly determines a body was buried there forty-seven years earlier—in 1918.

a 50ish, independent, no-nonsense voice teacher in spike heels. Tough and tender, ahead of her time, and smart as all get-out, Augusta teaches at two Cincinnati colleges in the 1960s.

"MEMORIES OF JAKE" WAS THE RECIPIENT OF A RED RIBBON AWARD FROM THE 2017 WISHING SHELF BOOK AWARDS

MAN WITH NO YESTERDAYS IS A FINALIST IN THE 2019 WISHING SHELF BOOK AWARDS

Lindsey Cameron, a gifted young soprano, believes herself called to a life in music and single-mindedly focuses on pursuing a career in opera. But a life-shattering tragedy involving her two college housemates changes everything. Overwhelmed by shock and grief, Lindsey struggles to say goodbye to one friend while helping her surviving friend on his long road to recovery.

Augusta McKee, amateur sleuth, professor of music, and former opera singer, is invited to perform in the musical Carousel at the Pocono Playhouse in Northeastern Pennsylvania. With the encouragement of her husband, Cincinnati P.D. Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, she accepts this chance to be on a stage again, in an area where she spent happy summers as a child experiencing the beauty of the mountains and the Delaware Water Gap.

Eugene Geller, the handsome and popular Cantor of Rockdale Temple—located in the racially tense Avondale neighborhood of Cincinnati—disappears without a trace during a night of rioting in the “long, hot summer” of 1967. Was Gene a casualty of the riot? Has he run away with one of his paramours? Or has he been the victim of foul play by his long-suffering wife or an angry ex-lover or a jealous husband?

After an eventful Beatles concert at Crosley Field, threatening (and badly-spelled) ransom notes begin appearing from unknown persons claiming to have kidnapped George Harrison. But the Beatles’ lead guitarist is not missing. The puzzled police, including Sergeant Malcolm Mitchell, at first dismiss the messages as a bizarre hoax.

Augusta McKee, former opera singer and now a voice teacher at two colleges, and her husband, Captain of Detectives Malcolm Mitchell, stop by the private box of a friend in Cincinnati's Music Hall following a performance of Mendelssohn's Elijah, only to discover multi-millionaire and philanthropist Tobias Dietrich has died. He seems at peace, and all indications point to natural causes, but not everyone is fully convinced.