Books by Joyce T. Strand

 

A SPURIOUS CLAIM

A BRYNN BANCROFT MYSTERY – INSPIRED BY EVENTS IN WWII CALIFORNIA

A disheveled woman presents Brynn Bancroft with a set of documents claiming that Brynn’s beloved Hilltop Sunset winery property belongs to her family. Brynn dismisses it as a spurious claim since she and her husband, Liam hold the deed to the property. However, she soon discovers that the same claims have been made to other wineries in the area, and they must work together to prove that the documents are false. In the search, she and her adopted college-age son, Josh, whose father is in prison for murder, and Liam encounter a connection to a family of squatters among the redwoods near the Oregon border, kidnappings, and murder in their search to prove that the documents are false, and that the winery really is theirs.

A TIME TO SEARCH

INSPIRED BY EVENTS IN WWII CALIFORNIA

What drives Clara Wilson to search for the mystery behind a small statue she finds in a redwood forest? As a would-be author, she’s certain the story behind the statue is significant—if only she can uncover it. However, wartime restrictions in 1943 California, escaped convicts, a robbery, a murder, an injured colleague, a possible budding romance, and a family hiding a secret—all interfere with her search and cause her to question whether it’s the best time to be searching for its secrets.

 

WHERE TROUBLE FOLLOWS

AN EMILY LAZZARO, BRYNN BANCROFT, JILLIAN HILLCREST MYSTERY

Together for a pre-wedding event, Emily Lazzaro, Brynn Bancroft, and Jillian Hillcrest confront foreboding setbacks reminiscent of previous life-threatening trouble they’ve all faced.

Jillian Hillcrest is pleased that her friends, Emily Lazzaro and Brynn Bancroft, have joined her in a southern California town to hike a trail in memory of her father. However, instead of a relaxing time, they are hit with a number of setbacks that cause them to keep postponing their adventure. Missing wire transfer and payroll funds at Emily’s B&B, the suspicious death of a friend of Jillian’s mother, and an aggressive investment firm with a doubtful, outrageous proposal—and threat—to Emily’s boss combine to interfere. The three friends—who have all had experiences with kidnappers and attempted murders—sense serious trouble. As they try to get to the bottom of these events, they begin to fear for their very lives.

DANGEROUS QUESTIONS

AN EMILY LAZZARO MYSTERY – (3)

Murder or deception? Despite repeated warnings to back off, Emily Lazzaro asks some dangerous questions about the disappearance of her employee from the Mane Stay B&B that she manages. When a body is discovered at a new winery opened by a friend, she fears the worst. Her single-mindedness turns into a compulsion and threatens her relationship with her love interest. Nonetheless, she vows to get answers.

 

Dangerous Delays:

An Emily Lazzaro Mystery – (2)

Finding a corpse buried with Native American artifacts wasn’t the first delay of the renovation Emily faced. But she was not prepared for what followed. A murder investigation, excavation to uncover more artifacts, and drug dealers looking for missing product further delay the mansion’s restoration into an iconic B&B. While facing these setbacks, Emily is also realizing her growing attraction to a local chef, a man who believes a relationship isn’t possible due to his commitment to care for his brain-injured brother.

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Dangerous Changes: An Emily Lazzaro Mystery – (1)

A series of events rattle Emily Lazzaro. A near-death encounter with a pickup on a narrow mountain road. The murder of a would-be client. And an ex-fiancé who won’t let go. Can she survive a police investigation, pressure from her ex’s company, and the suspicions of a possible new love-interest—so that she can make the changes to create a meaningful new life in a special town in southern California?

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Overcast Sunset: A Brynn Bancroft Mystery – (3)

 

Brynn Bancroft’s enjoyment at running her former husband’s winery is overcast by a rash of troubling burglaries and her inability to reconnect with her ex. When she receives an urgent phone call from an old college friend, she welcomes the interruption. Unfortunately, her friend’s business activities intrude on her routine. Then her ex-husband threatens her marriage hopes when he considers selling the winery. When the burglaries escalate, a sense of foreboding plagues her, hinting at trouble to come.

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The Reporter’s Story

A house burglary in 1912 San Francisco that the victim denies happening piques Emma Matheson’s reporter instincts. Why would a businessman deny that recovered loot was his and forego collecting his $8,000 worth of stolen jewelry? Why did he fire his maid and butler who originally reported the theft? The more she pursues the burglary that wasn’t a burglary, the more she sees it as a major story, involving murder, intrigue, and smuggling. Can she solve it and write the story that could project her to become the world-famous reporter she so covets? Or will she become one of its victims?

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Landscape for Murder: A Brynn Bancroft Mystery – (2)

A friend’s murder. An unconnected cast of suspects, including the victim’s missing adult daughter. As if that wasn’t enough, Brynn Bancroft’s winery has been broken into. Can she deal with her co-owner ex and help the police find her friend’s murder so she can finally overcome her own troubled past and enjoy family life with her teenage ward?

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The Judge’s Story

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A Superior Court Judge with a passion for social justice as well as the law strives to discover the truth behind the mystery of a robbery-murder in a small California town in 1939.

When the Judge hears testimony against a 14-year-old teenager, he realizes that the boy participated in a robbery-murder. However, the accused did not actually pull the trigger. But unless the boy identifies his partner, the Judge must sentence him as a murderer, which would result in prolonged jail time. The Judge’s investigator, along with the precocious 16-year-old girl who identified the boy as one of the thieves, explore different approaches to uncover the murderer. In the backdrop of escalating war in Europe, the financial scarcities of the Great Depression, and the Judge’s caseload, their attempts to find justice for the accused boy and unmask the killer lure the Judge and his friends into sordid criminal activities.

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Hilltop Sunset: A Brynn Bancroft Mystery – (1)

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A mystery set in wine country pitting financial exec Brynn Bancroft against a determined stalker, a troubled love interest, and career clashes.

Brynn Bancroft learns that a former employee who beat her nearly to death has returned to stalk her and her friend, Jillian Hillcrest, also a former victim. Recently divorced, Brynn turns to a new love interest only to encounter additional unwelcome issues. Meanwhile, short-timer Brynn, who has resigned from her Silicon Valley company, becomes bored fulfilling her remaining responsibilities there. She begins to prefer supporting the launch of her ex-husband’s new hilltop winery while waiting to move to her next position. Between her stalker and her new love interest, Brynn faces a series of life-changing events.

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Fair Disclosure: A Jillian Hillcrest Mystery – (3)

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Jillian and ex-husband Chad are enjoying a play at a local community theater when a scream interrupts the production upon discovery of a bludgeoned volunteer. When it turns out that the victim is someone Jillian interviewed for a job at her company, she becomes involved in another crime, drawn ever deeper by a second murder, an irate investor, the participation of law enforcement amateurs, an increasingly unreliable assistant, and suspicious stock trading at her company. Meanwhile, Chad is pressuring Jillian to say “yes” to a second marriage.

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Open Meetings: A Jillian Hillcrest Mystery – (2)

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While diligently promoting her company to the community, PR Executive Jillian Hillcrest joins with a local reporter to investigate his hometown’s police department in a remote area north of wine country in the Napa-Sonoma region in California. They encounter far more than they anticipated.

PR Executive Jillian Hillcrest is having lunch with a reporter colleague when a woman enters and begs him not to print anything she’s told him because they will kill her if he does. A few days later, the reporter tells Jillian that the woman was killed in his hometown in a car crash that the police ruled as an accident caused by driving while under the influence of alcohol. Although Jillian is busy promoting her Silicon Valley biotech company to the community, she is drawn into the reporter’s investigation of his hometown’s police department in a remote area north of wine country in the Napa-Sonoma region in California. Coincidentally, her neighbor Cynthia Anderson, a former police officer of the San Francisco Police Department, wonders about the untimely death of her policeman husband 20 years earlier as part of the same police department. Meanwhile, Jillian’s ex-husband hovers over her to reverse the “ex” status.

Watch the trailer for Open Meetings

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On Message: A Jillian Hillcrest Mystery – (1)

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Jillian Hillcrest, the head of corporate communications at Harmonia Therapeutics, is eagerly staying “on message” to inform investors, the media, and the community about the company’s latest drug product candidate for the difficult-to-diagnose and treat autoimmune disease, lupus. She is pleased with the results of the announcement in Geneva of encouraging Phase 2 data, and returns to the U.S. ready to continue to publicize her company and its products.

Jillian is an enthusiastic communications professional who relishes synthesizing the pieces and bits of information to produce a whole picture for her audience. After almost ten years in high tech, she was wooed by a recruiter to enter the world of biotechnology where the discovery of DNA and the identification and mapping of the human genome are leading to the development of a new round of drugs for difficult-to-treat diseases. So she joined Harmonia Therapeutics just over a year before, and was excited to announce the advancement of the company’s newest therapy.

However, her enthusiasm is overshadowed by several events–the most intrusive of which is murder. From the moment she hears of the first murder, her routine of writing press releases, speaking at conferences, and arranging interviews-all changes. She encounters a determined San Francisco police inspector who is convinced she is the key to the murders. With the help of her ex-husband–whose attentiveness to her suggests he wants to amend the “ex”–and a retired middle-aged intrusive motherly neighbor, Jillian connects disparate pieces of the puzzle to help solve the crimes.

Watch the trailer for On Message

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INSPIRATION

Inspiration for the Jillian Hillcrest mysteries comes from two key sources: my experiences as a Corporate Communications manager and relevant cases from current events.

I freely admit that I never encountered any murders in my career and had to look elsewhere for insight into the world of crime fiction. Fortunately, being the news junkie that I am, I turned to current events for inspiration. Each of the Jillian Hillcrest mysteries is inspired by actual events in the news–murders or crimes that could possibly touch Jillian’s life as the Senior Director of Investor Relations and Corporate Communications at a small biotech company in Silicon Valley.

For On Message, I drew on a case in San Diego, Calif. of the murder of an angel investor who was a former biotech executive. The circumstances surrounding the motive for the murder and the unique capture of the suspect helped fuel my imagination.

I quickly need to add that I definitely changed the events, invented the characters and their backgrounds, and under no circumstances should On Message be considered “True Crime.”

To assure that I anchored the events in reality surrounding Jillian’s interactions with the police, I researched and spoke with several law enforcement officers about police procedure.

Following are links to articles that served as inspiration for On Message.

Spoiler alert

If you are a mystery buff and prefer to solve the puzzle of the On Message mystery along with Jillian, you may not want to read the following articles. They might give you clues about some of the scenes in the book that you may prefer to solve without extraneous hints.

• Man Charged with Murder in Death of San Diego Angel Investor

OPEN MEETINGS is drawn from a group of former or current law enforcement officers who created a network of crime in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Spoiler alert

As with ON MESSAGE, if you are a mystery buff and prefer to solve the OPEN MEETINGS mystery along with Jillian, you may not want to read the following articles. They might give you clues about some of the scenes in the book that you may prefer to solve without extraneous hints. NOTE: no murders were committed in the real-life case.