Joan M. Drury Books

With her mother's last words still echoing in her ears, Tyler Jones, the San Francisco-based newspaper columnist and amateur sleuth introduced in The Other Side of Silence, journeys to the family home in northern Minnesota. Tyler, directed to find the truth, has no inkling what truth she is supposed to search for in this idyllic haven perched on the edge of Lake Superior. As Tyler attempts to fulfill her mother's deathbed wish, she unearths layer after layer of half-truths, legends, and lies accumulated over the years and passed down through the generations, binding some members of this community to a conspiracy of silence. She explores the meaning of family in its many guises, the complexity of human nature regarding our notions of good and bad, and the lengths to which the living will go to protect their dead. There are bodies, of course, but the real mystery in Silent Words is about the secrets that hide and fester in family histories and hearts. Winner of a Minnesota Book Award, the Northeastern Minnesota Book Award, and a Midwest Book Achievement Award. Finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award.

Fiction. With THOSE JORDAN GIRLS, the author of the Tyler Jones mystery trilogy (including CLOSED IN SILENCE) delivers a family novel that follows four generations of women living together in small-town Minnesota. Narrated by Maddie, the youngest, the story centers around matriarch Gummie, a strong and independent woman who finds her way to the forefront of every major twentieth-century social movement while raising a daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter to follow in her footsteps. Julia Alvarez (How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents) commented, Every word rings true. We feel a part of this unusual family, one of those Jordan girls, eagerly turning the pages to find out where we came from and who we are.

When five women meet up at a reunion to share stories of struggle, triumph, accomplishment and pain, they also encounter a murder.