About this item
[Read by Tavia Gilbert]With Silent Murders, MB/MWA First Crime Novel Competition winner Mary Miley has crafted another terrifically fun mystery, this time set in the dizzying, dazzling heart of Jazz-Age Hollywood.Vaudeville actress Leah Randall took on her most daring role ever when she impersonated missing heiress Jessie Carr in order to claim Jessie's inheritance in The Impersonator. Now that the dust has settled around that tumultuous time in her life, Leah has adopted Jessie's name as her own and moved to Hollywood, where she's taken a modest but steady job in the silent film industry.Jessie's thrilled when Bruno Heilmann, a movie studio bigwig, invites her to a party. She's even more delighted to run into a face from her past at that party. But the following day, Jessie learns that sometime in the wee hours of the morning both her old friend and Bruno Heilmann were brutally murdered. She's devastated, but with her skill as an actress, access to the wardrobes and resources of a film studio, and a face not yet famous enough to be recognized, Jessie is uniquely positioned to dig into the circumstances surrounding these deaths. But will doing so put her own life directly in the path of a murderer?
About the Author
I'm an Army brat who has lived in Virginia most of my adult life. I received my BA and MA in history from the College of William and Mary and taught American history and museum studies at Virginia Commonwealth University for thirteen years. I am the author of 200 magazine articles, most on history, travel, and business topics, and of a dozen nonfiction books. The Impersonator (2013) was my first foray into fiction (and it won the national Mystery Writers of America award for Best First Crime Novel) ; Silent Murders (2014) is a sequel. The third, Renting Silence, came out in 2016 and the fourth, Murder in Disguise, is due in August, 2017. I'm having a ball with the Roaring Twenties era and my characters, who are starting to seem like family! Meanwhile, I have a new gothic romance, Stolen Memories, available in paperback and as an ebook.
In first grade I took a shine to Show and Tell and have never stopped. Whenever I teach or lecture, I bring Stuff along with me, historical Stuff that helps paint a picture of my subject or era. For my Roaring Twenties mystery series, I've been collecting items that relate to both period and plot. So far I have a dozen vaudeville programs, two beaded flapper dresses that belonged to my grandmother, some period magazines and advertisements, a blown-glass fisherman's float, and most recently, a bottle of mercury bichloride (empty!) , the medicine/poison that figures in Silent Murders.
The Roaring Twenties is the most fascinating decade in American history and the perfect setting for a mystery series.
