An award-winning author of books about American history and biographies, Leslie Wheeler turned to mystery writing to give herself the freedom to make things up. While she still salts her mysteries with actual history, she now offers an exciting story in the present. Her Miranda Lewis Living History Mystery series debuted with Murder at Plimoth Plantation, set at the living history museum and re-released as a trade paperback from Encircle Publishing. Other series titles are: Murder at Gettysburg, set at a re-enactment of the famous battle, and Murder at Spouters Point, set at a fictionalized Mystic Seaport.
Wheeler’s second series of Berkshire Hilltown Mysteries, set in a small town in a rural part of Western Massachusetts, not unlike the town where she has a home, debuted with Rattlesnake Hill. A starred review in Library Journal hailed the book as: “an atmospheric series set in the Berkshires . . . vivid descriptions in this intricately plotted novel will remind readers of Sharyn McCrumb’s Appalachian-set tales or Phyllis A. Whitney’s romantic suspense novels with their strong sense of place.” Shuntoll Road, the second book in the series, will be followed by Wolf Bog (July, 2022.) Besides a strong sense of place, all Leslie’s books feature ordinary women thrust into extraordinarily dangerous situations, where they must find the inner strength to prevail. To these ingredients, she adds a dash of romance, and a bit of magic, because why not?
Wheeler’s mystery short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including the Best New England Crime Stories series published by Level Best Books, where she was a co-editor/publisher for six years. She is delighted to return as a co-editor/publisher at Crime Spell Books, which continues the series with Bloodroot (2021) and Deadly Nightshade (2022).
A member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the New England Crime Bake Committee, she divides her time between Cambridge, Massachusetts and a house overlooking a pond in the Berkshires, where she does her best writing.
