More music, murder and mystery in Cincinnati

Musician-turned-author Susan Moore Jordan has released The Case of the Disappearing Director, the second book in her “Augusta McKee Mystery” series. The first book, The Case of the Slain Soprano, was released in April of this year.

Jordan has also produced a number of historical novels since she began writing in 2013: “The Carousel Trilogy,” stories tied together by a life-changing event experienced by three high school friends in the nineteen-fifties; a follow up book to that series; and a two-book saga about the lives of two brothers altered by their experiences in the Vietnam War. Jordan’s historical novels feature musicians who are dealing with difficult life challenges. The first book in the Cameron saga, Memories of Jake, was the recipient of a Red Ribbon Award from the 2017 Wishing Shelf Book Awards. All of Jordan’s books are available in the University of Cincinnati Library.

Jordan also used her thirty-plus years of experience as a musical theater director in a memoir, “More Fog, Please”: 31 Years Directing Community and High School Musicals.

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.”

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 at the age of eighty. Former student Stephen Paynter, tenor, is presently in his twentieth season with the Metropolitan Opera Chorus, where he also serves as Assistant Chorus Manager. Another former student, baritone Thomas Lehman, is currently in his fifth season at the Deutsch Oper Berlin and presently performing leading roles. Other students have performed in opera and musical theater regionally, on national tours, and on and off Broadway.

The Case of the Disappearing Director is set in 1963 Cincinnati where former opera singer Augusta McKee teaches voice on two college campuses. Her beau, Homicide Detective Malcolm Mitchell, is again an important character, this time as he attempts to solve the mystery of a “John Doe” victim whose body was dumped in Cincinnati’s Eden Park, not far from an iconic structure which is reputedly haunted. It’s almost Halloween, and Augusta is directing scenes from opera which feature on-stage ghosts; and offstage, eerie happenings on the Conservatory campus abound. Eventually Augusta begins to wonder if Malcolm’s case and her experiences could somehow be connected.

https://www.amazon.com/Disappearing-Director-Augusta-McKee-mysteries/dp/1726811867/ 

“Augusta McKee, singer, fashionista, tender-hearted amateur sleuth, is a candidate for Masterpiece Mystery if ever there was one. A few pages into The Case of the Disappearing Director, the second in Jordan’s Augusta series, you will feel that you know the protagonist—or wish you did.” 

“Jordan's in-depth knowledge of opera and theater specifically is fascinating and informative and the story moves step by step to a surprising and satisfying ending. Her characters have a life of their own, and kept me engaged in the story and on the edge of my seat until the conclusion. I look forward to more of (Augusta McKee’s) adventures!” 

“Jordan's second Augusta McKee mystery is as much fun as you can have in a story that includes a murder. It builds on characters established in the first book, especially "Gus," way ahead of her time and place in 1963 Cincinnati …The story builds to a climax that successfully stops just short of turning into camp. Readers will want more Gus and Malcolm, ghosts or no.”

Media contact:

Susan Moore Jordan

suejo@ptd.net

Phone number 570-677-5680

www.susanmoorejordan.com