Welcome to Woodstock, town of Peace, Love, and Music — until…
Woodstock, NY, my beloved hometown, became the most famous small town in America after the music festival in 1969. Funnily enough, the festival didn’t even happen here, though the musicians were from Woodstock. The festival actually took place in Bethel, in Sullivan County – about one-and-a-half hours from here.
But that‘s neither here nor there in what I’m about to tell you about the town of Peace, Love, and Music.
My name is Philomena Wolff. I’m small, dark-haired and olive-skinned.. My father’s family was Jewish-Greek (Greek-Jewish?) and my mother’s, pure WASP, long-time residents of Woodstock. It was not a happy home, and they never should have married.
Still, growing up here was probably the best experience a kid could have. At the Woodstock School I wasn’t the greatest student – too busy getting in trouble for truancy, smoking, and other such stuff. The worst thing about that was when my parents found out. Enough said. Anyway, school was where I found my best friend, Melanie. She was the pretty one of the two of us: blond, blue-eyed, with a great smile. We were joined at the hip until…
When I was 17, Connie, one of girls in my class at Onteora High, disappeared. Three days later, her body was found in the woods near the school. There were rumors that she’d been raped before she was killed.
A few days later Suzanne, another girl at school, went missing and was found dead. The whole town was terrified, especially the parents of high-school girls. Police were combing the school, the streets, everywhere, with no luck.
A week later, on a rainy, foggy day, Melanie and I were walking home together after school, like we always did. We huddled under my pink-and-white-striped umbrella, barely able to see in the fog. Then Melanie said she heard a kitten mewing down a side street and went after it. I shouted at her, “Don’t go down there, Melanie, you don’t know what’s there!” But Melanie loved animals and always worried about strays. I waited and waited, and finally made my way to the corner and peered down the dark street. It was hard to see in the fog, but I got a glimpse of a tall, thin man coming out of a building. He looked up at me and I ran home as fast as I could.
Melanie’s body was discovered the next day. I cried for days for my friend and was terrified he was going after me next, especially since he saw me.
After a while, the killer disappeared from the area. When I finished college, I settled down back in Woodstock. I began a career as a freelance investigative reporter and rented a studio in New York City for interviews for my articles. Then the killings started again, this time all over the Mid-Hudson Valley and beyond.
I had to do something. I vowed to track down that killer, no matter how I did it or what it took. I started a crime-solving blog, “Who Killed Who?”, figuring that an online audience could be helpful in my pursuit. My team included Lily, a psychic who worked for pay as the head gravedigger at the Woodstock cemetery, and the blog’s readers. The hunt was on. But soon, the killer started posting vile threats on my blog.
After I was attacked in my Woodstock cottage by the killer (who bragged about it on my blog), I was more determined than ever to find this evil monster. Preferably before he found me again…
The Murder Blog
Genre: Suspense
Release: December 2023
Format: Print, Digital
Purchase Link
After many years, a serial killer of young women is back again in upstate New York. Philomena Wolff, the host of a crime-solving blog, a psychic gravedigger, and her blog readers are determined to stop him-no matter the danger.
Philomena Wolff was 17, walking home from school with her best friend, when her friend disappeared, ending up as one of several young women abducted and murdered in upstate New York by a clever killer who eventually disappeared from the area.
Philomena was terrified that the man caught a glimpse of her when he took her friend. Many years later, young women have been ending up dead again.
Philomena, now an investigative reporter, hosts a crime-solving blog, “Who Killed Who?” With the the help of her friend, Lily, a psychic gravedigger, her friend’s boyfriend, a P.I., and the blog’s readers, Philomena is on a mission to hunt the killer down. Her blog readers are with her, but so is the killer, posting vile notes and vicious threats on the blog.
Could the killer be the same one who murdered her friend long ago, trolling for more young women-and Philomena?
About the author
I’m the author of six traditionally published books: three novels and three nonfiction books. My latest mystery, The Murder Blog, is scheduled for release on December 28, by Black Rose Writing.
My last two novels — both mysteries — Dead Shrinks Don’t Talk, and Grave Expectations, were published by Black Opal Books in 2018. A coming-of-age novel, Halley and Me, won the Grassic Short Novel Prize from Evening Street Press and was published in 2013. Nonfiction books include Teenage Suicide, Simon & Schuster; Street Gangs, Franklin Watts; and Street Gangs in America, Franklin Watts. Street Gangs in America received a book award from the National Federation of Press Women. Previously, I worked as a journalist and was a contributing writer to The New York Times. I’m a member of two professional writer’s groups: Sisters in Crime and the International Women’s Writing Guild.
Connect with me on my website, on Facebook, on my Amazon page, and Author’s Den.