About Joyce T. Strand

Joyce T. Strand is the author of contemporary and historical who-done-it mysteries.

Her contemporary novels include trilogies featuring sleuth Jillian Hillcrest, a publicist at a biotech company in Silicon Valley;  Brynn Bancroft, a financial guru in transition to winemaker from corporate executive, who is a spinoff from the Jillian Hillcrest trilogy; and Emily Lazzaro, the manager of a bed and breakfast in a small California town, a spinoff character from the Brynn Bancroft trilogy.

Her historical mysteries include: THE REPORTER’S STORY, published June 16, 2016, is an historical mystery set in San Francisco in 1912 featuring a female reporter determined to become a respected front-page reporter but encountering mystery, intrigue, murder along the way. THE JUDGE’S STORY, published June 23, 2015, is an historical mystery set in a small California town (Ventura) in 1939 and features a California Superior Court Judge.

Much like her protagonist Jillian Hillcrest, Strand headed corporate communications at several biotech and high-tech companies in California’s Silicon Valley for more than 25 years. Unlike Jillian, however, she did not encounter murder in her career. She focused on writing by-lined articles, press releases, white papers, and brochures to publicize her companies and their products.

Strand has been a mystery fan since she read her first Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy stories as a teenager. She admits that in between reading Agatha Christie, Ian Fleming, Erle Stanley Gardner, and John McDonald in her youth, she also checked out Tolstoy, Steinbeck, Faulkner, and Dostoyevsky, but her love of the “puzzle” always drew her back to the latest fictional detective. Today she favors John Grisham, Louise Penney, Linwood Barclay, Michael Connelly, and Stieg Larsson. She has always enjoyed the challenge of following clues to solve the puzzle of a mystery before it is revealed.

Therefore Strand relished the transition from writing marketing copy to creating fictional sleuths.

However, one other confession: her most favorite novel ever is Shogun. Even though the historical James Clavell novel is not a “mystery,” it is full of puzzles inside puzzles in medieval Japan. And the tale is told so well that readers feel like they’re actually there.

Strand lives with her collection of cow statuary in Southern California, and seeks out and attends as many Broadway musicals and other stage plays as she can get to.

Strand received her Ph.D. from the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. and BA from Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA