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Press Releases
Voice teacher and stage director Susan Moore Jordan turns mystery novelist
Musician-turned-author Susan Moore Jordan’s recently released cozy mystery, The Case of the Slain Soprano, introduces her readers to Professor Augusta McKee, described by one reviewer as “a no-nonsense voice teacher in spike heels, tough and tender and smart as all get-out.”
This is Jordan’s eighth book and seventh novel -- the first four of which had musical settings -- and her first mystery novel. Her second book in the Augusta McKee mystery series, The Case of the Disappearing Director, will soon be released, and a third is in the works.
An alumna of the College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati, Jordan moved to the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania with her late husband and young children in 1971 where she established a voice studio that she still operates. Former student Thomas Lehman, baritone, is currently in his fifth season at the Deutsch Oper Berlin and presently performing leading roles.
From 1984 through 2015 Jordan directed 80 stage musicals for area high schools and community theaters, as well as preparing young singers for recordings for Shawnee Press, Inc., and Wide World Music, and hosting a classical music program for the East Stroudsburg University radio station, WESS. She began writing in 2013 at the age of 75 and retired from stage directing in 2015. She put her directing experience to use in a how-to book for stage directors called More Fog, Please.
Music is an integral part of Jordan’s books, as she sees writing as “another way to share this powerful universal force which speaks to all of us.”
The Case of the Slain Soprano is set in Cincinnati in 1963, where McKee teaches voice on two college campuses. With the help of a Cincinnati police detective, the Professor becomes deeply involved in solving the murder of a student who was her leading lady in a production of The Pirates of Penzance.
In the fall of 2016 Jordan was featured in an “Alumni Applause” article, “Performer Turned Author Captivates Readers with Novels Set at CCM,” in the online University of Cincinnati CCM News Blog, “The Village News.” https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/performer-turned-author-captivates-readers-novels-set-susan-jordan/
The article described Jordan’s first four historical novels, all of which feature musicians who are dealing with difficult life challenges. All her books are available in the University of Cincinnati Library.
Her books are available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle. More information is available at her website, www.susanmoorejordan.com
https://www.amazon.com/Slain-Soprano-Augusta-McKee-mysteries/dp/1718802420?
“Jordan has written a different type of novel this time: a murder mystery. And although the genre is different from her earlier works, she brings the same quality of writing and music-centric story telling we have seen in her prior work.”
“The mystery novel is a new genre for the amazing Sue Jordan, who more or less retired from directing musical theater and emerged a full-fledged writer, with seven previous books in some five years.”
“This is (Jordan’s) first venture into the cozy mystery, and she's hit a home run!
The book is well-plotted and well-written. Jordan shares her extensive knowledge of Cincinnati and its music scene in detail with us, and we truly feel the setting of this book almost as if we were there.”
Media contact:
Susan Moore Jordan
Phone number 570-677-5680
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