Dr. Carole Shmurak

To contact Carole, click here.

To order a copy of Deadmistress from Amazon, click here.

Click here to read an excerpt from Deadmistress.

To order a copy of Death by Committee from Amazon, click here.

Click here to read an excerpt of Death by Committee.

To read an online interview with Carole, click here.

To read a second interview with Carole, click here.

   Last Updated on 1/3/08

If you had asked me when I was ten years old what I wanted to be, I would have said a writer. But life is funny. The times I grew up in and my family background led me to become a scientist instead. So I went into science research, then science teaching. After 20+ years of high school teaching I became a college professor. Now many years later, I am back to my childhood dream: I'm a writer!

        I've always been an avid reader, starting with my discovery of L. Frank Baum's Oz books when I was 6 or 7 years old. (Yes, he wrote many more books than just the Wizard of Oz.) I still read a lot, but mostly detective fiction, and this has inspired me to write detective novels as well as our Matty Trescott books. I was thrilled when Ring Out Wild Bells was nominated for an Agatha, one of the major awards in detective fiction.

        I have also loved Broadway musicals my whole life. I grew up in New York City and still go to the theater when I can. Now that I live in Connecticut, I also enjoy regional theaters like the Goodspeed Opera House and Williamstown Theater Festival. My other love is movies — the classics by Alfred Hitchcock and Frank Capra and other directors of the 1930s-1950s, as well as the great movie musicals of that era.

        Currently I live in Connecticut with my husband Steve, and our cat, Ariel. I have a grown daughter, Jill Susannah, who lives with her husband, Baird, in Minnesota; they both teach at Carleton College.

   Carole's first detective novel, Deadmistress, was published by Sterling House Publishers in 2004. Her second book, Death by Committee, was released in October 2006.

        Deadmistress is the first book in a series featuring Dr. Susan Lombardi, a 40ish professor of education at Metropolitan State University, in Albion, Connecticut. Deadmistress is a lighthearted, traditional mystery with a murder in a close-knit community in which almost everyone has a motive for wanting the demise of the victim. Its heroine is part of a long tradition of academic sleuths.

        Whereas Deadmistress is about the murder of Sabena Lazlo, headmistress of  the elite Wintonbury Academy for Girls, Death by Committee takes place entirely at Metropolitan University. Faculty squabbling at the university turns deadly when  Susan joins a committee to make a tenure decision about Abby Gillette, a controversial faculty member.  After one colleague is hospitalized following a suspicious fire and another is found dead in Abby's office, Susan must try to figure out who is doing what to whom without becoming the next victim. At the same time, she must deal with her husband's highly dysfunctional family and help a friend handle a questionable romance.

    Deadmistress was named a Notable Book in the Writers Notes Magazine Book Awards contest for 2005.       

To read reviews of both books at Mystery Morgue click here for Death by Committee and here for Deadmistress.

To read reviews of Death by Committee and Deadmistress at Cozy Library click here.

To read a review of Death by Committee on MyShelf.com click here.

Carole at a book signing with Paul Stankiewicz and Jeff Cotter of the Rainbow World Fund.

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To read an excerpt of Carole's latest book, Death at Hilliard High (due out in 2009) click here.