Part of Series
When a Mysterious Birth and Murder Occur at a Posh New England Prep School, Thea Kozak Finds Answers in SCHOOLED IN DEATH by Kate Flora—Massachusetts, North of Boston, Present Day—For school campus crisis counselor, Thea Kozak, Mondays are the worst day of the week. So when the phone rings early in the morning, she expects bad news. What she doesn't expect is the pain laden voice of the headmaster of the highly-respected Simmons School pouring forth his dire situation. A sophomore student had given birth to a pre-mature infant, then abandoned the child claiming it was not hers because she'd never had sex. With the baby in NICU, the teenaged mother facing criminal charges and parents demanding answers, it's Thea's job to restore calm and order while gathering the facts of what actually happened. Then Heidi, the alleged mother, disappears and the body of a stranger is discovered in the campus woods, murdered. Pregnant herself, Thea now races the clock fearing the young girl will be the next victim while every discovered clue points to an impossible Heidi's assertion may actually be true. Publisher's Kate Flora takes readers on a breathless experience with a surprise at every turn. Fans of Janet Evanovich, Michael Connelly as well as Faith Martin and Chris Collett will not want to miss this series. "...a terrific, in-your-face, stand-up gal...Stephanie Plum and Thea Kozak have a lot to say to each other." Janet Evanovich "Kate Flora does what all the great writers she takes you inside unfamiliar territory and makes you feel right at home; you climb in and are along for the whole ride." Michael Connelly "I'll follow Thea Kozak anywhere. She is simply one of the most refreshing and original heroines in mystery fiction today. And Kate Flora is the rare, graceful writer who pays close attention to how long it takes the body and the heart to heal." Laura Lippman THE THEA KOZAK MYSTERY SERIES Chosen for Death Death in a Funhouse Mirror Death at the Wheel An Educated Death Death in Paradise Liberty or Death Stalking Death Death Warmed Over Schooled in Death ABOUT KATE Kate Flora's fascination with people's criminal tendencies began in the Maine attorney general's office. Deadbeat dads, people who hurt their kids, and employers' discrimination aroused her curiosity about human behavior. The author of nineteen books and more than twenty short stories, Flora's been a finalist for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer awards. She won the Public Safety Writers Association award for nonfiction and twice won the Maine Literary Award for crime fiction. Her latest fiction is Schooled in Death, her 9th Thea Kozak mystery. Her latest nonfiction is Shots The misconceptions, misunderstandings, and myths about police shootings with retired Portland Assistant Chief Joseph K. Loughlin. Flora divides her time between Massachusetts and Maine, and between cooking and gardening and obsessive writing.
Author
Kate Flora grew up on a chicken farm in Maine where the Friday afternoon trip to the library was the high point of her week. She dreamed of being able to create the kind of compelling, enchanting worlds of the books she disappeared into every week, but growing up in the era when “help wanted” ads were still sex-segregated, she felt her calling was to go to law school and get the job they told her she couldn’t have. After law school, Kate worked in the Maine attorney general’s office, protecting battered kids, chasing deadbeat dads, and representing the Human Rights Commission. Those years taught her all a crime writer needs to know about the human propensity to commit horrible acts. After some years in private practice, she decided to give writing a serious try when she quit the law to stay at home for a few years with her young sons. That ‘serious try’ led to ten tenacious and hellacious years in the unpublished writer’s corner, followed, finally, by the sale of her Thea Kozak series. Kate’s eighteen books will include eight Thea Kozak mysteries, five gritty Joe Burgess police procedurals, a suspense thriller (written under the name Katharine Clark), two true crime books, Death Dealer and Finding Amy (co-written with Joseph Loughlin, a Portland, Maine Deputy Police Chief), a Maine game warden's memoir, A Good Man with a Dog, co-written with Roger Guay, and a book about police shootings from the police point of view, Shots Fired: The misunderstandings, misconceptions, and myths about police shootings, co-written with Joseph K. Loughlin. Finding Amy was a 2007 Edgar nominee as well as a Maine Literary Award finalist, and has been optioned for a movie. Kate’s award-winning short stories have been widely anthologized and Redemption and And Grant You Peace, her third and fourth Joe Burgess mysteries, won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. Flora's fiction, nonfiction, and short fiction have been finalists for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer Awards. She is a founding member of the New England Crime Bake, the region's annual mystery conference, and the Maine Crime Wave. With two other crime writers, she started founded Level Best Books, where she worked as an editor and publisher for seven years. She served a term as international president of Sisters in Crime, an organization founded to promote awareness of women writers’ contributions to the mystery field. Currently, she teaches writing and does manuscript critiques for Grub Street in Boston. She has two sons (one into film and the other into photovoltaics) two lovely daughters-in-law, an adorable eight-year-old grandson and five granddogs, Frances, Otis, Harvey, Oscar, and Daisy. When not conducting research for her novels and nonfiction—research that includes riding an ATV through the Canadian woods or hiding in a tick-infested field waiting to be found by search and rescue dogs—Kate can often be found in her garden, waging war against the woodchucks and her husband’s lawnmower, or in the kitchen, devising clever and devious ways to get the men in her life to eat their vegetables.
