Learn more about Libby Seale, heroine of the mystery series set in Portland, OR in the 1890s — a fascinating era when this bustling rapidly-expanding city was the most important urban center in the Pacific Northwest.Join the Libby List and you’ll be first to hear when there’s exciting Libby news. You’ll also receive advance samples of forthcoming Libby and Peter novels, and exclusive bonuses, like the never-before-seen short story featuring Libby Seale, "The Wisdom of Amateurs." Read the story for free now!
The Real Libby
When we started developing the main character for our Gilded Age Portland mysteries, we wanted to pay homage to our maternal grandmother Lillian (Libby) Rilander nee Seletzky. While she was born in 1902, and would therefore have been a generation younger than our fictional heroine, we gave the intrepid Libby Seale many of the qualities that made our Grandma such an inspiration to us.
Lillian Rilander 1902-2000
Though she always rejected the term Flapper (how we teased her about this!) Lillian was indeed one of the pioneering women of the 1920s who rejected traditional feminine roles. She never learned to cook, preferring to read instead, she bobbed her hair as soon as it became fashionable — her father refused to speak to her for over a month — and, most impressively, graduated from NYU Law School in 1925 (where she was voted prettiest girl in her class...though it must be said there was only one other female student!).She had a tart sense of humor and a dry wit, but was also caring and nurturing, and almost single-handedly kept her household afloat through the Great Depression, working as a legal secretary, since our Grandpa was unemployed. And it’s this combination of traits —brains, warmth and determination — we wanted to bestow on our fictional seamstress-turned-sleuth.
About the authors
Miriam and Joseph Zellnik are a bicoastal brother-sister writing team. When not writing mysteries, Miriam (based in Portland, OR) has also written such hard-hitting reportage as "The Magic 8-Ball Book" and "Vampire in a Box" for Running Press. By day, she works as a technical writer. In addition to the Libby Seale books, Joseph (based in New York) is also author of "The Sound of Murder," first in the new Musicals Are Murder series. He's also co-author of the upcoming "Periodic Table of Broadway Musicals", from Hachette. As a composer, Joseph has written the scores for numerous musicals, including the off-Broadway hit "Yank," which has been produced across the country and around the world.
About the books
Currently Available:
The Vaudeville Murders: A Libby Seale MysteryLibby Seale – a recent transplant from New York’s Lower East Side – enjoys the glamor and the bustle of her work as a seamstress at Crowther’s Portland Variety. That is, until the murder of her friend Vera Carabella, a magician’s assistant, reveals a darkness at the heart of her new home town. In unraveling the mystery of Vera's death, and subsequent killings, Libby acquires sleuthing partner and potential beau Peter Eberle, a reporter for the Portland Gazette. Their burgeoning romance is hampered by the strains of the murder investigation, as well as by secrets from Libby's past.NOTE: This is a newly-edited and lightly-revised version of the previously-published Murder at the Portland Variety.
Coming soon:
Book 2 in the series