The year is 1923, and one of Ohio's most prominent judges, O'Brien O'Donnell, fathers his first and only child. Though a joyous occasion for the recently married, fifty-nine year old, the birth sets off a terrifying chain of events, beginning with blackmail and the judge's near-fatal breakdown. His only hope for recovery lies with his trusted friend and colleague, Sarah Kaufman. As Sarah begins to unravel the clues surrounding O'Brien's collapse, she is repeatedly confronted with the explosively paradoxical forces that defined life in the twenties: sexual promiscuity and self-righteous morality, Progressive reform and political corruption, racial tolerance and institutionalized bigotry. It was O'Brien's unique ability to strike a compromise between these forces that made him so popular...and, she realizes, so vulnerable to attack. And soon enough, Sarah, too, becomes a victim, a target of the blackmailer's hatred and revenge. But with the help of a story-hungry reporter to whom she becomes ambivalently attached, the unconventional Jewess sets out to free the judge and herself from their common enemy. How? The answer lurks within the hidden recesses of...O'Brien's desk. Based on true events, this suspenseful novel possesses a unique authenticity. With actual newspaper articles about the real O'Brien O'Donnell beginning each chapter, the story invites readers to solve the mystery along with the protagonist, piecing together a decades-traversing narrative, clip by clip.
Ona Russell earned her M.A. in American literature from Clark University and her Ph.D. in literature from the University of California, San Diego.
Teaching for years in various colleges and universities in the San Diego area, she found a home at the UC San Diego Extension. There she developed courses that combined her literary and interdisciplinary interests: from Poetry and the Workplace, to the Literature of Travel Writing, to Literature and the Law.
Ona lives in Solana Beach, California with her husband. She currently lectures nationally on a variety of interdisciplinary topics and is working on her second novel, also a mystery.
Russell's first novel, "O'Brien's Desk: An Historical Mystery," was published in 2004. The story turns around O'Brien O'Donnell, an influential Ohio judge who lives a tortured double life. O'Donnell was the author's grandfather-in-law, and when scrapbooks housing 20 years worth of articles about him fell into her hands, the rest was history, or, as Russell puts it, "historical fiction."
Celebrated baseball players, feminists, politicians and numerous other historical figures appear in this carefully researched mystery, including the protagonist-sleuth, Sarah Kaufman, a Jewish probate officer with whom the judge worked. The result is an unusual blend of fact and fiction, an invitation to a narrative past authenticated in the daily headlines.
Mystery writer Anne Perry calls "O'Brien's Desk," "an intriguing and thoroughly researched story that gives us insight into the moral dilemmas of 20th Century America. A well-told story that does not leave us with easy answers."
