FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
GENERAL
Q. What are The Osley College Mysteries?
The Osley College Mysteries series (in progress) is character-driven collection of mystery tales that take place on a college campus located in the Driftless Region of Wisconsin (US).
Q. What does “character-driven” mean?
Character-driven means that the plot doesn’t drive the story, the characters do. The emphasis is on the development of characters over external plot or action allowing the reader to connect more deeply with the protagonists. In the case of a mystery story, it can mean that the characters’ inner struggles and motivations are critical in solving the case.
osley college
Q: Is Osley College a real place?
I wish! Osley College is the fictional setting for the series. It is a mid-sized, private research and liberal arts institution with an enrollment of ca. 4000 undergraduate and graduate students, is located in Vernon County, Wisconsin, specifically in New Joseph, a town located on the shores of Lake Isabeau. Vernon County is on the western edge of the state in an area known as the Driftless Region. Popular majors include Nursing Science, Information Technology, Engineering, Biology, Business, and Music and Performing Arts.
While the Driftless Region of Wisconsin is quite real and quite beautiful, the town of New Joseph, Osley College, and its denizens and their actions are entirely fictitious. And a geological note re: Lake Isabeau. While this geographical area has several lakes, it does not have one precisely where I need it to be. I have taken creative license and invented one. Initially, it bears the name of the college founder’s first wife rather than its original Native American name.
(I’ll be adding a “Fun at Osley” page to this website soon. It will include the campus map!)
Q: The Driftless Region? What’s that?
The Driftless Region (sometimes referred to as the Driftless Area) is a large area in the U.S. Midwest that was never glaciated. The Region covers Minnesota, Wisconsin, northwestern Illinois, and northeastern Iowa. Osley College is located about halfway between the city of LaCrosse and town of Viroqua.
More info here: Driftless Area (Wikipedia) and the Driftless Magazine.
About the osley college mysteries
Q: How many books will there be in the series? Do I need to read them in order?
The Osley College Mysteries series (in progress) is character-driven collection of academic mystery tales. It is a planned series of five books.
Although I expect people will read them as they find them, ideally, they should be read in order as a key feature of the series is how the key characters grow, confront or resolve their private griefs, and create a found family among themselves.
Q: Can you give me some hints about what’s to come? (No spoilers please!)
Book 1: Resolute Death (2026). After the college carillonneur is found dead on his office steps and the body of an undergraduate pulled from the college lake, the Dean of Libraries commits suicide. An eclectic group of campus worthies finds themselves unwittingly in league and uncertain whom to trust when it becomes possible that one of them is a killer. For more details, click here.
Book 2: Innocent Monsters (forthcoming, 2027). When the body of a student wearing a mechanical tail and iridescent metal cape is discovered in the college underground tunnel system, the graduate student cosplay group comes under suspicion.
(Books 3-5 are in progress. The plan is to publish one a year, more frequently if I can manage it.)
Book 3: She is Mighty. With a gruesome murder at the college ice rink followed by the disappearance of the new star recruit, suspicion falls on the women’s ice hockey coach, a gold medal Olympian and partner of the new Dean of Libraries.
Book 4: Conference of Fools. The keynote speaker of the annual Historical Osley conference is found dead the evening after his new biography on the college foundress has been publicly dismantled by an up-and-coming scholar with a book of his own.
Book 5: This Darkest Fear. A child has gone missing. The body of a dead man has been found in the college woods. And a one-time hobo, now English professor and noted literary figure, finds his past has come to haunt him.
Q: Where can I get my hands on the books?
Literally, hands . . . at the moment the Osley College Mysteries are exclusively in print.
Resolute Death can be ordered from Barnes & Noble, Bookshop, Thriftbooks, and Blackwell’s (UK). Or take the ISBN (9798994157909) to your local indie bookstore and ask them to order it for you.
Q. Any content/trigger warnings I should know about?
Resolute Death is neither a cozy nor sentimental mystery. It includes elements that some readers may find difficult. Click here for details. The following 4 books in the series will each have their own CW/TW info noted.
Miscellaneous Notes
Q: What is a whimsy stick?
In Resolute Death the character of James North is described as carving whimsy sticks. The sticks are a form of so-called hobo and tramp art where one whittles, or carves, shapes out of raw wood using a kmife. I will soon be adding a post to my blog that goes into more detail, including images and resources.
Q: What is a quiff?
The Wikipedia entry for quiff describes it as “a hairstyle that combines the 1950s pompadour hairstyle, the 1950s flattop, and sometimes a a mohawk. It was born as a post-war reaction to the short and strict haircuts for me. The character of Ariel Ellis, a somewhat eccentric character in the Osley books, is given to playful hairstyles, from waist-length, straight black hair to golden buzz cuts to a teal blue quiff with gilt gold highlights.
Q: What is a carillon?
According to the Cambridge Dictionary entry, a carillon is “a set of bells, usually hung in a tower, that is usually played with a keyboard consisting of a keyboard and with [foot] pedals.”