Elaine Orr
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Elaine L. Orr authors three mystery series, including the eleven-book Jolie Gentil cozy mystery series, set at the Jersey shore. Behind the Walls was a finalist for the 2014 Chanticleer Mystery and Mayhem Awards. The first book in Elaine's three-book River’s Edge cozy mystery series, From Newsprint to Footprints, debuted in late fall 2015, followed by Demise of a Devious Neighbor (a Chanticleer finalist in 2017). The fictional South County sits along the Des Moines River in Southeast Iowa.
In 2016 she issued Tip a Hat to Murder, first in the Logland mystery series. Set in small-town Illinois, its protagonist is a police chief rather than an amateur sleuth. The second book, Final Cycle, will be out in late 2018. Other work includes the one-act, Common Ground. Her novella, Biding Time, was one of five finalists in the National Press Club's first fiction contest, in 1993, and her play, Permission to Hope, was part of the Bethesda, MD Plays in Progress series in 1989. Recent literary fiction includes Falling Into Place and In the Shadow of Light. Elaine conducts presentations on electronic publishing and other writing-related topics. Nonfiction includes Words to Write By: Getting Your Thoughts on Paper and family history books. She also conducts online courses on writing and publishing for Teachable.
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First Four Jolie Gentil Mysteries
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Jolie Gentil (Zho-lee Zhen-tee) moves to Great Aunt Madge’s bread and breakfast at the Jersey shore, taking her cat Jazz, and joining Madge's pair of prune-eating dogs. Jolie does not view this as a retreat from her embezzling ex-husband, just a smart change. Jolie rekindles friendships, dodges a low-level wise guy, and tries to figure out her new life. She hasn't seen her high school classmates in ten years, and they weren't all buds. Why care if a couple of them are murder suspects? Because finding a dead body when you're appraising a house grabs your attention.
Jolie balances fear of wise guy Joe Pedone with a belief that her friends are innocent. Her list of murder suspects includes a soon-to-be-ex wife and beneficiaries of the dead woman's will. Jolie wants to find the murderer. But will a bad guy’s plans leave her alive to find the truth?
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Ground to a Halt (Book 8 of the Jolie Gentil Series)
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Cozy Mystery
When Jolie Gentil goes to buy a cup of coffee the morning after a storm knocks out power at her house in Ocean Alley, she finds Java Jolt unlocked and minus its owner. A bigger surprise is seeing proprietor Joe Regan a few minutes later, badly injured. It seems a potential killer thinks Jolie has something Joe was hiding. The normal routine of appraising houses and volunteering at the Harvest for All food pantry is interrupted by an SUV that nearly smashes Jolie, a break-in at the home Jolie and Scoobie share, and a terrifying kidnapping. Jolie needs to figure out who's telling the truth and how far the thugs will go to to find what they want. Only solving the puzzle will keep Jolie safe, protect a vulnerable Iraqi War vet, and make sure everyone stays alive. But if Jolie keeps searching, her budding romance with Scoobie may grind to a halt.
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Trouble on the Doorstep (Book 5 of the Jolie Gentil Series)
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Cozy mystery
From Hurricane Sandy to Cozy Corner B&B repairs to Aunt Madge's wedding in three weeks. If Jolie can handle that surely she can deal with a sobbing woman who shows up at midnight playing a scary message on her phone. Pooki is frantic about her husband's whereabouts and is definitely ditzy. A shady deal for storm repairs at the Ocean Alley Senior Complex seems to be at the root of Steve Oliver's hit-and-run death and missing business partner, Pooki’s husband, Eric. When Eric ends up dead at the B&B, Jolie digs for clues as she burns muffins and appraises houses. But when she doesn't share all that she learns with her sometimes-boyfriend, reporter George Winters, he's grouchy. Jolie is convinced she has to find the murderer and expose fraudulent repair bids. Not everyone shares her views--not the police, her friend Scoobie, and certainly not the murderer.
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Vague Images (Book Seven of the Jolie Gentil Series)
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Cozy Mystery
Bad enough that Jolie ends up in the emergency room because she tried to avoid hitting a deer. Worse to find a dead woman in the hospital restroom after Jolie gets patched up. In between appraising houses and feeding her pet skunk, Jolie’s on the lookout for a runaway teenager and whoever planted the dead woman in her path. Thanks to best bud Scoobie, she’s also planning another crazy fundraiser for the food pantry—this one a Corn Hole Contest. It’s sort of a bean bag game for grown-ups, and the polite term is Corn Toss Contest. So of course, Scoobie prepares to name winners in the Harvest for All Corn Hole Contest. Just when Jolie’s ready to leave the murder investigation to the police, she gets a surprise—and it’s not a good one. Will her need to know see her hurt—or worse?
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Behind the Walls (Book 6 of the Jolie Gentil Series)
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Cozy Mystery
It’s fun to buy a house. Unless someone wants what’s hidden behind the walls. Someone who is willing to kill for it. Jolie is pursued by a purse thief and a burglar, but the guy she’s most worried about is the one who left an elderly auctioneer dead on her porch swing. In between appraising houses and planning a fundraiser for the food pantry (can you say liquid string contest?), Jolie, Scoobie and friends need to figure who left a cache of jewelry behind the walls in her house and who seems willing to kill for it. And who is going to help her cat Jazz feel at home in the new house? Maybe a different kind of pet…
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Demise of a Devious Neighbor
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Mystery
Reverberating bangs shook Melanie Perkins' nerves when she visited the old barn on her late parents’ farm. Either someone was aiming at her truck, or they didn’t know fireworks are supposed to go upward. Could things get any worse? Yes. On her next visit, she finds a dead body on the barn floor. Even tougher -- Sheriff Deputy Granger's gun is pointed at the chest of someone she holds dear. Illegal goods are complicating things in the small Iowa town of River's Edge, Iowa, and Mel’s out of sorts with some usually supportive friends. And someone may have taken Mister Tibbs! That little dog is her favorite companion. Her busy landscaping work, upcoming Fourth of July activities, and a half-finished manuscript hinder her determined efforts to solve the crime -- before an innocent person is convicted of murder
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