Hello, I’m Jennifer Dalton, better known to my friends and colleagues as Jenn. Fortunate enough to reach some of my career goals in my early thirties, I’m the director of the writing center at Clarion University, as well as the author of a successful series of mysteries. Although Clarion is located in the city of Harburg, I live in Taylorsford, a historic small town at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in northern Virginia. The university is about a thirty-minute drive from Taylorsford, but I feel the travel time is worth it, especially since I lucked out in renting a wonderful converted garage apartment from Clarion’s poet-in-residence. My detached apartment provides a spacious and safe home for me and my cat, Ash, as well as a quiet place to write. I also enjoy my conversations with my fellow writer and landlord, Emily Moore. For the past two years my daily life has been calm and predictable, allowing me the time and energy to write while I also work at a job I love – helping students hone their own writing skills.
But things have changed lately. Although I’ve had to study detective work to write my books, I never expected to use that knowledge in the real world. Unfortunately, I’ve had to jump into real-life sleuthing after stumbling over the body of an English professor on the top floor of the university library. Not just any professor, either, but Doug Barth, who’d recently humiliated one of the students I mentor, Mia Jackson. Mia’s focused on achieving success as a romance author, a goal which never sat well with Barth. He felt she should use her considerable talents to write literary rather than genre fiction. Sadly, based on the word of witnesses, Mia and Doug Barth had argued vehemently on the day he died.
Now Mia, the number one suspect in his death, has disappeared. Campus Police and the authorities in Harburg are convinced she’s guilty, but a few of us are not so sure. This includes the grandmotherly manager of the campus cafeteria where Mia once worked and a quirky, tattooed, reference librarian who often helped Mia with research. These two very different women have joined me in a quest to locate Mia and clear her name. We’re also joined, if somewhat reluctantly, by Zach Flynn, a psychologist who has a private practice but also works at the campus health center twice a week. I often feel he’s an arrogant pain in the neck, but admit his psychological input is a boon for our little team of amateur sleuths.
Our belief is that there are many other possible suspects in Doug Barth’s murder. It’s not that surprising. Although many people think of universities as peaceful refuges from the chaos and violence of the world, nothing could be further from the truth. The tenure system, the hierarchy of the various departments, and the scramble for limited university dollars often create a dog-eat-dog environment. Gossip runs rampant too. Honestly, a university is the perfect breeding ground for murder – there’s simply too many clever people jostling one another for positions of power.
So, my daily life is not quite the same as before. Now I’m risking my life searching for clues to solve a murder rather than simply creating clues for my books. It’s sometimes scary, yet I must confess that it’s also exhilarating. Hopefully, Clarion won’t experience any more murders or other serious crimes, but if that does happen, my rather eccentric team and I will be ready to help crack the case!
Schooled in Murder: A Campus Sleuth Mystery, Book 1
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Release: January 2025
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link
A mystery writer must solve a real murder case before an innocent girl is condemned in this series debut from acclaimed author Victoria Gilbert, perfect for fans of Ellery Adams and Lorna Barrett.
Jennifer “Jenn” Dalton is an author and educator at Clarion University in Virginia. She loves her job, but some of her petty coworkers look down on her for writing genre fiction. As members of the English department, they wish to encourage students to pursue higher literary aspirations. When a humiliating confrontation between an uppity professor and one of Jenn’s students, Mia, escalates, no one thinks much of it. Until his dead body is found along with evidence incriminating Mia.
Jenn knows Mia couldn’t have killed him, but Mia’s suspicious disappearance might as well be a proclamation of guilt. With the sleuthing skills Jenn has acquired writing murder mysteries, she’s determined to solve the case and clear Mia’s name.
Along with the help of her fellow sleuthers—Christine Kubiak, a cafeteria manager; Zachary Flynn, the charming but annoying campus psychologist; and Brianna Rowley, a librarian—Jenn must catch the real killer before there’s another murder on the books.
About the author
A retired librarian, Victoria writes the Blue Ridge Library Mystery series, the Booklover’s B&B Mystery series, the Hunter and Clewe traditional mystery series, and the Campus Sleuth mystery series for Crooked Lane Books. She is represented by Frances Black at Literary Counsel, NY, NY. A member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and International Thriller Writers, Victoria lives in North Carolina with her husband, son, and two very spoiled cats.
Linktree with all social media, website, and contact links at linktr.ee/victoriagilbertauthor.