I’ve always been an avid mystery reader. Growing up, I read
Nancy Drew mysteries like most other girls my age but my favorite books were
the Judy Bolton mysteries written by Margaret Sutton. Titles like The Midnight Visitor, The Mark on the
Mirror, and The Forbidden Chest
fascinated me. Each book held a mystery for Judy to solve and, if memory
serves, there were no murders in any of the books. Just an intriguing mystery.
Of course, those books were written for young girls, not
adult women, so there were limits on the subject matter and graphic nature of
the published material. Understandable. Although I love a good murder mystery,
I also like the idea of mystery without murder, which I attribute to all the
hours I spent with Judy Bolton.
There are no murders in Secrets
in Storyville. Only mystery.
Kate Morgan, a single mother,
lives in the small town of Storyville, Ohio where she grew up. A want-to-be
author, she works as a sales clerk in the town’s only department store doing
what she describes as “a job a monkey could do.” Although she’s bored with her
job, she’s reluctant to consider making any major changes in her life. However,
she’s about to find out that change is inevitable.
When Kate’s ten-year-old
daughter, Mandy, tells the family she plans to do a family tree for a school
project, the negative reaction of Kate’s parents and grandmother shocks her but
also arouses her curiosity. Why are they so against Mandy’s project? Surely her
family is too “normal” to have any skeletons in their closet.
Kate decides to support her
daughter even if that means defying her parents. As she searches for the truth,
she discovers some long buried secrets that, if she decides to reveal them,
will change her life and the lives of the people she loves - forever.
