The Mean Bone in Her Body (New Royal Mysteries) - Softcover

Scott, Laura Ellen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1945502290 ISBN 13: 9781945502293

Publisher: Pandamoon Publishing, 2017

Synopsis

Jeaneane Lewis is a disturbed graduate student in a crime writing program who makes a grisly discovery: in the heart of the college/prison town of New Royal, Ohio, a military widow and her two small children lay dead in a frigid garden pond, watched over by a shivering, ex-cadaver dog named Daddy. The murders go unsolved, but Lewis manages to publish a vivid account of her experience before she falls prey to years of writer's block and drug addiction that make her a terrible student but an acceptable assistant to the most unpopular professor in the program, Elizabeth Murgatroyd. Just before Lewis is kicked out of NRU, Murgatroyd's one-night stand with a stranger yields a shocking revelation--not only is he the killer, but Lewis' story is a complete fabrication. Though shaken by the encounter, Murgatroyd means to keep the killer's secret until she can write an article of her own. With the help of an ex-con named Crocus, the Professor takes a closer look at the murders that have come to define New Royal, though first she must explore the twists and turns of Lewis' grim past.

About this title

About the Author:

Born and raised in the tiny Northern Ohio town of Brimfield, Laura Ellen Scott was named after the classic noir film and song, "Laura," so it makes sense that she enjoys writing dark, quirky fiction in the tradition of Tom Robbins, Kelly Link, and Robert Altman. She started out writing short fiction, and her stories can be found in places like Ploughshares, Pank, Mississippi Review, and Wigleaf, but it wasn't until she received an out-of-the-blue email from the great Dorothy Allison (BASTARD OUT OF CAROLINA) that she started writing novels. That email said, among other things: "Damn you are good. You are just seriously satisfyingly good." Eventually Allison would blurb Laura's first novel, DEATH WISHING (Ig PublisHing, 2011), a comic fantasy set in post-Katrina New Orleans. These days she is an author with Pandamoon Publishing, and her latest novel, CRYBABY LANE, is the second book in the NEW ROYAL MYSTERIES, a series set in a fictional college/prison town in Ohio. The first book in the series is THE MEAN BONE IN HER BODY, releases late 2016. Prior to launching the series, Pandamoon published Scott's THE JULIET, a western/mystery about a cursed emerald lost in Death Valley. Scott is a term full professor in the English Department at George Mason University, and she divides her time between Fairfax, VA and Great Cacapon, WV.

Review:

"In The New Royal Mysteries series, ex-con and creative-writing student Crocus welcomes us to New Royal, Ohio, to a college in a prison town, a place of back-biting, head-games and dog-eat-dog. And that's just the professors. Scott has a truly original voice - warm with a sharp edge - and Crocus is as beguiling a heroine as you're likely to meet."--Catriona McPherson, Edgar/Macavity/Agatha/Anthony nominated author of The Child Garden and Quiet Neighbors 

"A dark and seductive mystery. Laura Ellen Scott's prose will haunt you long after the final page."--Kerry Carter, Editor of 
Mystery Weekly Magazine

"Dark, disturbing, often unnerving, Laura Ellen Scott's broken characters strike a haunting chord of realism. THE MEAN BONE IN HER BODY challenges and twists, not letting you go until the very end." -Rochelle Staab, bestselling author of The Mind for Murder Mysteries

 "Laura Ellen Scott writes like...well, like Laura Ellen Scott and nobody else. Get ready for a ride through one of the weirdest minds in all contemporary literature."-Amber Sparks, author of The Unfinished World, The Desert Places, and May We Shed These Human Bodies 

 "Gone Girl fans rejoice! Laura Ellen Scott has whipped up a doozy with her latest novel. Part chilling mystery, part psychological thriller, The Mean Bone in Her Body weaves together a story that will leave you gasping at the end."
-- Robert Swartwood, USA Today bestselling author of The Serial Killer's Wife and Abducted

About this edition

• Publisher: Pandamoon Publishing
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1945502290
• ISBN 13: 9781945502293
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 268