Having been raised living down the road from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory while the legendary Barbara McClintock was still working there, I developed a fascination with both McClintock’s DNA theories and her single minded, obsessive work ethic, so when I began writing novels, I fictionalized McClintock as the reluctant sleuth Grace Farrington in the Oyster River Research mysteries. The resulting books are ORR: The Nobel Prize Murder (2015), ORR: Fatal DNA (2016), ORR: Murder Genetically Engineered (2017), and ORR: The Tell Tale Y (2017).
In the these books a fortyish genius Grace Farrington wants just to be left alone to continue her DNA research at the Oyster River Harbor facility–instead she keeps finding romantic men and dead bodies. Sometimes they are both packaged together. The most fun with writing these books is that each of the ORR series opens with a historical prologue related to one of the mysteries within.
4) ORR: THE TELL TALE Y Available in Print and Kindle on Amazon
Available in Print and Nook on B&N
Just trying for a relaxing vacation, Dr. Grace Farrington discovers what might be missing evolutionary DNA from a fisherman’s net on the island country of São Tomé and Principe. Later, in a rustic beach cabin with Kurt, their overdue romantic interlude is interrupted with the news that her best friend, Freya, has been arrested for murdering a man in Senator Kincaid’s boathouse.
Cutting her vacation short, Grace returns to New England and Oyster River Research, where Freya isn’t talking. Unfortunately the Kincaid’s mysterious 'caretaker' was murdered with the same tenth century trimming ax that Freya uses to build her Viking ship reconstructions. Furthermore, although Freya is trying to hide it, this dangerous, blackmailing deadman may have been her son Mac’s real father! But even while Grace investigates to prove her friend innocent, she’s drawn into another complicated genetic code mystery, this one involving the last Czar of Russia and his missing daughter, Grand Duchess Anastasia.
3) ORR: MURDER GENETICALLY ENGINEERED Available in Print and Kindle on Amazon
Available in Print and Nook on B&N
In this, the third book in the Grace Farrington DNA mystery series, Grace is returning from winning the prestigious MacAlpin Guru award, when she finds Oyster River Harbor Research is being picketed by Anti-Genetic Engineering protestors. Her rival, Dr. Huang Wong, has signed a research grant with a conglomerate run by the handsome, wealthy bachelor Axel Jensen. C.E.O. of Humanity’s Harvest, Axel has a reputation for marrying brainy women, and is under the impression that his generous contract also includes Grace.
Tension is building up with the demonstrators, as Grace and the other researchers start getting anonymous death threats. These threats are ignored, until a body is found floating in the Connecticut harbor. Humanity’s Harvest tries to cool things off with a December outdoor-in-the-snow bar-be-que, while Grace is hunting for traces of the illusive “food for the Incan Lord God” in the University Museum. In New Haven she stumbles on to an intriguing DNA puzzle left over from the Conquistadors conquering of Peru. Can even Grace solve it all before the next murder?
2) ORR FATAL DNA Available in Print and Kindle on Amazon
Available in Print and Nook on B&N
Grace Farrington is considered a genius in her field, so it is not surprising that when doing some special DNA sleuthing she discovers a convoluted motive for murder (as she attempts to desecrate a body).
Her life suffers further complications when her new age friend Freya involves her in a seance that triggers a desperate search for a lost Revolutionary War ransom. Of course no one has found the treasure in over two hundred years, but they didn’t have Grace’s skill at reading the secrets of Colonial DNA!
Distracting entanglements are the three men on her romantic horizon: rough edged fellow scientist Kurt MacKay; old moneyed David Gardiner; and a new billionaire, the handsome Jack Stuart, who arrives in the New England town of Oyster River Harbor with an intense interest in both her research and her body.
Grace is determined to keep her mind on mitochondria, even as Kurt is attacked by a local fisherman. But when her sometime lover is accused of murder, Grace has to act, only to find out too late that the next targeted victim is herself!
Available in Print and Nook on B&N
Grace Farrington is considered a genius in her field, so it is not surprising that when doing some special DNA sleuthing she discovers a convoluted motive for murder (as she attempts to desecrate a body).
Her life suffers further complications when her new age friend Freya involves her in a seance that triggers a desperate search for a lost Revolutionary War ransom. Of course no one has found the treasure in over two hundred years, but they didn’t have Grace’s skill at reading the secrets of Colonial DNA!
Distracting entanglements are the three men on her romantic horizon: rough edged fellow scientist Kurt MacKay; old moneyed David Gardiner; and a new billionaire, the handsome Jack Stuart, who arrives in the New England town of Oyster River Harbor with an intense interest in both her research and her body.
Grace is determined to keep her mind on mitochondria, even as Kurt is attacked by a local fisherman. But when her sometime lover is accused of murder, Grace has to act, only to find out too late that the next targeted victim is herself!
1) ORR: THE NOBEL PRIZE MURDER Available in Print and Kindle on Amazon
Available in Print and Nook on B&N
Turned down for this year’s Nobel Prize, fortyish genetics pioneer Grace Farrington finds out the new head of Oyster River Research is the man who stole her theories to get his prize! When Dr. Marshall is murdered on ORR’s house boat, Grace finds herself chief suspect and is further implicated when following an 1800's witch’s Curse of Three, two more people die in Oyster River Harbor. While finding herself romantically involved with a billionaire patron and a red necked colleague, Grace must use her scientific reasoning and her eclectic group of friends (scientists, cops, psychics and some other slightly eccentric New Englanders) to solve the murders before she’s arrested or killed herself.
Available in Print and Nook on B&N
Turned down for this year’s Nobel Prize, fortyish genetics pioneer Grace Farrington finds out the new head of Oyster River Research is the man who stole her theories to get his prize! When Dr. Marshall is murdered on ORR’s house boat, Grace finds herself chief suspect and is further implicated when following an 1800's witch’s Curse of Three, two more people die in Oyster River Harbor. While finding herself romantically involved with a billionaire patron and a red necked colleague, Grace must use her scientific reasoning and her eclectic group of friends (scientists, cops, psychics and some other slightly eccentric New Englanders) to solve the murders before she’s arrested or killed herself.