Three books in Kathy
Goldring’s cozy mystery
series published by Berkley under the pseudonym “Kat Goldring”, have
been released and a fourth is on the way. The first in the series, “All
Signs Point to Murder,” hit the shelves in bookstores throughout the
country in 2001, followed by Death Medicine in 2002 and “Work of the
Angels” in 2003. The Eye of the Divine is scheduled for publication in
February, 2005.
The series features nosy English
teacher-amateur sleuth Willi Gallagher and her friend and foil, Quannah
Lassiter, a Lakota-speaking American Indian special investigator for
the Texas Rangers. All Signs Point to Murder centers around a
Lakota-speaking American Indian special investigator for the Texas
Rangers. All Signs Point to Murder centers around a series of
mysterious deaths of high school students from the small Texas town of
Nickleberry—deaths the redoubtable Willi suspects result from murder.
The Willi Gallagher series will continue with
the projected February, 2005 publication of The Eye of the Divine,
dealing with matters of trust and Zen Buddhism.
Twenty-seven years as a teacher of Spanish,
English, and history in the Alvarado Independent School District
qualify Goldring to write authentically of school situations and
characters, but she stresses that her characters are totally totally
fictional.
The character of Quannah Lassiter reflects
Goldring’s own Native American background as do the fictional
antecedents of Willi Gallagher herself. The fictional town of
Nickleberry provides the stage for the series, especially for All Signs
Point to Murder and Work of the Angels. On one level, Nickleberry seems
a good ol’ common sense Texas town, while on another, it evokes an
atmosphere of medieval magic and mysticism, thanks to Willi’s white
witch neighbors, the Kachelhoffer sisters.
