Jeanne M Dams Books

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Jeanne M. Dams was born in South Bend, Indiana. During her high school days, Jeanne developed an interest in English mysteries. She graduated from Notre Dame and Purdue and went into a teaching career soon after. Jeanne nurtured her love for writing, and has written five mystery novels featuring Dorothy Martin, an American widow living in Britain. Jeanne has a fetish for hats and cats, thus she has five fat cats. She also cherishes old stuff and old movies. Jeanne has written two mystery books; among them is the Dorothy Martin sequence, an anglophile fantasy. This is a story of a wealthy American widow who moves to England and settles in a breathtaking cottage in a quiet cathedral town. She has new charming neighbors, a weird gardener, a cat and a lovely fertile cottage garden.

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Dorothy charms up an ordinary citizen, a mid-level detective superintendent, who has extreme British tendencies and mannerisms with a fondness for hats. She is an intellectual detective with an incompetent charm behind the wheel, in a British depressed economy. The Body in the Transept tells a story about Dorothy; a retired English teacher which was followed up with a record seventeen books under the mystery series tales.Jeanne also wrote The Victim in Victoria Station, and a second series; The Hilda Johansson mystery, a historical story set in South Bend. The first book; Death in Lacquer Red stars a young Swedish immigrant Hilda Johansson, the head housemaid at the Studebaker mansion in Tippecanoe Place.

Against the backdrop of 1900, Hilda finds herself facing immigration problems, religious conflict, and global unrest. The discovery of a dead young woman’s body murdered on the Studebaker’s estate sends shockwaves down her spine. Hilda boldly investigates against the advice of many naysayers.

Jeanne M. Dams Awards

The Body in the Transept, the first book in the miniseries Dorothy Martin won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel of 1995. Jeanne was also nominated for the Macavity Award in 1995.

Jeanne M. Dams Books into Movies

None of her books have been adapted for screenplay.

Best Jeanne M. Dams Books

The Body in Transept: This is the first book in the Dorothy Martins series; it sold thousands of copies and garnered over 800 reviews in Good reads. In this series, the author introduces the reader to the protagonist, Dorothy, who is a retired American widow in her late sixties. Dorothy resides in a conservative cathedral town in Kent. Dorothy is trying to find a seat for a Christmas Eve midnight mass in the cathedral. At the end of the service on her way out, she stumbles over a corpse. Luckily, Dorothy is in the company of a chief constable, she naturally gets curious about the murdered young woman and feels compelled to get involved because she highly suspects many of her friends. Dorothy is a self-imposed amateur sleuth with the right associations as she and the chief constable grow to be close friends.

Trouble in the Town Hall: This is the second book in the critically acclaimed Dorothy Martins series. Dorothy is trying to settle down in a new town with strange people, secrets and a horrible murder that has many unanswered questions. Dorothy managed to find a part-time job at the Cathedral bookshop. Considering whether to buy her rented cottage listed on the historic register, she acknowledges that it may require extensive renovations which will be expensive to bare. She heads for the town hall to find out if she can buy her lovely cottage. Upon her arrival at the old Town Hall, she finds it closed until a resolve for its use can be announced. While still at the town hall, Dorothy and the cleaning woman find yet another body of a murdered a young man hidden in a closet.

Mr. Pettifer, the builder who hopes to develop the property bumps into Dorothy at the local store shortly after the discovery. Dorothy narrates the tale of a dead man found in the old town hall; she accompanies him to the scene of the crime, together with his wife. Mr.Pettifer inspects the body and closes the victim’s eyes. Dorothy notes his dismissive attitude and the woman in his company that seems cowed by his demeanor. She immediately puts him at the top of her suspect list notwithstanding that other persons might have been there long before him. Some people benefit from any scandal affecting the Town Hall, most notable on the list is the town’s aristocratic citizens. Dorothy’s beau, Chief Constable Nesbitt is busy handling security for the Prince of Wales who is scheduled to visit. He is somewhat unavailable when Dorothy implores on him concerning the dead man’s case which, of course, she has no authority investigating.

When Does The Next Jeanne M. Dams book come out?

The next book by Jeanne M. Dams is Murder of a Recluse and will be released on March, 4th 2025. It is the newest book in the Oak Park Village Mystery Series.

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