Janet Dawson: 9 books

Mary Todd Lincoln, wife of the sixteenth president, is the First Lady of a nation embroiled in the Civil War. She’s also a savvy political wife in wartime Washington.  In this short story, the First Lady uses her powers of observation and the help of two White House employees to sort out crimes – including murder – and bring the perpetrators to justice.  

Hattie Ballew is a gold miner in California’s Mother Lode. She works a claim with her brothers, and enjoys the company of her cat Little Bit, who pilfers things from the cabin and the surrounding woods. As Hattie finds out in this short story, the lust for gold leads to violence – and murder. And Little Bit may drag in a clue.

A fabulous jeweled egg made by Fabergé for the Russian imperial family disappears during an art gallery opening. Does the gallery owner have something to do with the crime? He’s had thefts from his other galleries, a pattern that retired private investigator Errol Seville believes is part of a...

Winner of the Macavity Award for Best Short Story.  The way we communicate now – by e-mail, text messages, voice mail – all detached and at a distance, without the immediate feedback of a face-to-face conversation, or even the voice-to-voice exchange of a phone call.  But sometimes...

Accident? Or suicide? That’s the question Navy Lieutenant Dinah Gray must answer when a sailor at her Navy command drives a car into San Francisco Bay. In this short story, Dinah discovers people would rather she didn’t make waves, including the formidable captain Dinah calls The...

Backing the wrong horse can be murder. And in this short story, jockey Deakin Kelley is about to be taken for the ride of his life. Deakin’s bewitched. He’s fallen under the spell of a beautiful woman, one with a sleek figure and a sly, come-hither smile.  But witchcraft – and obsessive love – are dangerous.  

“When the neighbors saw rats climbing the curtains . . . they called the cops.” A pack rat – of the human variety – lives in the rundown house, surrounded by the junk he hoards. As the officers discover, there’s more to this short story than the rats at the window and the piles of old newspaper inside. What’s going on is a crime.

Greta and Hank are orphaned and homeless, scrabbling for survival on the cold, rainy streets of San Francisco.  In this short story, a noir take on Hansel and Gretel, the little girl struggles to keep herself and her brother from falling through the cracks in this scary urban landscape, where homeless adults help and also prey on lost children.  

IT'S BEEN 50 YEARS SINCE FERN CHATFIELD DISAPPEARED. WHAT HAPPENED TO HER? DID SHE RUN AWAY? OR WAS SHE ABDUCTED? MAGGIE CONSTABLE WANTS TO KNOW HOW THE STORY ENDS. A warm June evening. A high school graduation party. Fern ends her relationship with her boyfriend Hank. He doesn't...