Bookshelf

(NP: Rogue Phoenix Press, 2018).
This is the second book in the author’s Vena Goodwin murder mystery series. The publisher describes it as beginning with two discoveries — “a murdered woman found on the Arch of Constantine and the revelation of a John Keats’ poem written at the end of his life in Rome, Italy. Disclosure of the invaluable poem causes events leading to murders with bodies deposited at historical sites in Rome. The Vena Goodwin mystery is also an exploration of Keats’ concept of ‘negative capability,’ in which intuition and uncertainty are prized over absoluteness. The speculation refers to light and darkness in the plot, bringing in the European refugee crisis, the Keats’ poem, and why we seek out uncertainties, including mystery. Familiar characters from book one in the series are the protagonist Vena Goodwin and her Italian lover Elio Canestrini.”

(self-published, 2018)
Writing under a pen name, Aviva Schneider K’76 shares commentary gleaned from 15 years of providing health education for her local Planned Parenthood. Many of her clients live in rural poverty, where generational teen parenting and large families are the norm. “Sometimes funny, sometimes poignant, always compelling and easily accessible, these stories provide a rare, intimate, entertaining, and eye-opening behind-the-scenes look into what informs people’s life choices, and a look at how sex and sexual health can be discussed comfortably and effectively.”

(Salem, Ore.: Rogue Phoenix, 2017)
Hard at work on her dissertation, the last thing on Vena Goodwin’s mind is solving a crime. But that’s where she finds herself after a man for whom she had feelings is assumed to have committed suicide. Believing it to be murder, she acts alone on her suspicions to trap the killer. Dafoe’s stories, essays, and poems have appeared in several literary publications.

(New York: Kensington, 2017)
This compelling page-turner tells the parallel stories of one woman’s lifelong quest to escape a family enmeshed in criminal activities and another woman’s attempt to find answers to some unsolved mysteries. Their paths combine and secrets are revealed. A former executive at Sun Microsystems, the author is now a high-tech consultant. This is her first novel.