MORE THAN BLOOD: Winner of the 2024 Minotaur Books/MWA First Crime Novel Competition

(Scheduled for publication by Minotaur Books in 2025)

When the owner of a historic (and haunted) Maine mansion dies in a tragic accident, her shy goddaughter Willow returns to Little North Island, determined to figure out who is murdering the property’s heirs one by one—without becoming the next victim herself.

The living aren’t much help.

Fortunately, the mansion is full of ghosts.

Please sign up below for news about the novel and its road to publication

SIGN UP FOR MY NEWSLETTER

I am beyond delighted that my debut mystery novel MORE THAN BLOOD has been named winner of the 2024 Minotaur Books/MWA First Crime Novel Competition and will join so many other beloved mysteries under the Minotaur imprint! Please sign up below for my quarterly-or-so newsletter, which will provide more information about the novel’s road to publication as it comes.

JKB on Cape Isle of Wight looking out over the water to Ocean City, MD.

About the Author:

Jennifer has been writing stories since she was in preschool, when she delighted in crafting tales of magic and adventure; she wrote and illustrated them with her 64-box of Crayolas, stapled the pages together, and waited for fame and riches to come calling. (They did not.) When her parents insisted that she pursue a career more secure than fiction writing, she decided to be a musician instead.

This was not what her parents had in mind when they said “more secure,” but they were wonderfully supportive nonetheless.

Jennifer holds degrees in piano, choral conducting, and theology. She is on the music faculty at Loyola University in Chicago and serves as an assistant conductor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Jennifer has worked as church musician, educator, composer, clinician, and editor for various organizations. Writing still found its way into her musical world: she is a prolific composer of choral music, and her compositions, as well as her nonfiction books and articles, are available through several major publishers.

She lives in the western suburbs of Chicago with her husband, two wiener dogs, and two kids currently attending college. Demonstrating once again the cliché about apples and trees, her son is a music major, and her daughter plans to be a writer.

(Jennifer is represented by Alice Speilburg of Speilburg Literary Agency.)