Created by Lo Monaco
Pseudonym of Virginia Welker
“I am a private investigator. My name is Terry Strong. I spy on people. I nose into their most personal spaces and dirty secrets and tattle all. Everything is for my clients. They pay me to find the people they think have done them wrong.”
— Lethal Relations
Of course, she’s thirtyish, beautiful (she’s a former model) and single (she’s a divorcée), so there may be a bit of Will they? Won’t they? going on in this romance-tinged, supporting character-packed series.
I mean, look at the cover of the 2018 series debut Lethal Relations, and tell me I’m wrong.
She has a detecting partner at Strong Investigations, Jack Jefferson, is a suitably hunky twenty-something Tai Kwan Do instructor with his own Dojang (Terry trains there) and a serious Pepsi addiction.
She also has an on again/off-again boyfriend, her “sometime SO,” Homicide Lieutenant Carlson Black. He has “smoldering brown eyes.”
Of course he does.
And she lives with her mom and Tim, her voracious, overgrown mutt who’s part-fox terrier.
Of course, she’s not impervious to feelins attracted to various people (all very handsome, of course) she encounters along the way.
Not that it’s all Wink Wink and Kiss Kiss, mind you — there’s also some Bang Bang, thanks to Terry’s martial arts trying. Asses are eventually kicked.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
American writer Lo Monaco (real name Virginia Welker) lived in Sicily for sixteen years before returning to California. She trained as an operatic soprano, and has worked for numerous opera companies in the states and served as director of the Schola Cantorum for the Church of Sant’Anna. To pay for years of vocal study, she’s worked as a fingerprint technician for law enforcement and as a group counselor for juvenile offenders. She’s also a member of the Private Eye Writers of America (where she was a judge for their Shamus Awards), the Short Mystery Fiction Society, The Crime Writers Association and Sisters In Crime-National and Los Angeles Chapters, and at one point worked as an editor for Futures Mystery Anthology Magazine.
UNDER OATH
- “A breezy, spicy whodunit anchored by an intuitive, clever detective.”
— Kirkus Reviews
NOVELS
- Lethal Relations (2018) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Poison Butterfly (2018) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Suddenly Deadly (2023 | Buy this book | Kindle it!
- Fallen in a Dark Uneven Way (2024) | Buy this book | Kindle it!
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
