Brunonia Barry's writing is skilled and diverse. Her latest book features a traumatized colonial-era scholar who studied the 1692 witch trials and has become a suspect in the murder of three women, called the goddess murders. She takes refuge under the oak tree in front of the house of Salem's chief of police. Barry's writing explores what it means to be ''the other'' and wonders if a new type of witch hysteria might happen again.
New England Authors – Jeannette de Beauvoir
Jeanette loves the Cape, and there's no where as unique as Provincetown. In the summer it's crazy, with theme weeks that draw thousands. Jeanette has drawn upon these theme weeks to deliver beautiful books. A best selling novelist who also writes books in other genres, such as the Middle Ages. Fun Interview.
New England Authors – Joanna Schaffhausen Mystery Writer
Police officer Ellery is on leave after she killed a murderer and is forced into group therapy. She barely escaped a serial killer when she was 14. She uses her time to solve two past crimes: an arson committed years ago where the suspect remains in prison, but Ellery has doubts about his guilt, and the rape of a woman by someone who climbed into a second story window and held a knife to her throat. The author has a PhD in neuroscience; her book is full of psychological profile.
New England Authors – Laurie Chandlar
Chandler writes with a love of the 1930s Art Deco era in New York. Her protagonist is a vibrant woman (like Chandler herself) who's an aide to the larger-than-life Mayor LaGuardia, has to fight mobsters on both sides of the Atlantic who run the crooked pinball rackets, the precursor of our slot machines. Along the way we're introduced to another side of the 1930s, art and positivity and building.
New England Authors – Julie Leven
Composer Francine Trester was inspired to write a short opera about Florence Price, the African-American composer who died in 1953. Price's music is beautiful, and although she was the first African-American to have a major symphony play her work, she suffered racial and gender discrimination, including homelessness. Julie Leven, founder of an organization that plays classical music in homeless shelters, commissioned the opera. Both women talk about Price and her legacy.