I first “met” Susan through a shared developmental editor and we’ve been supporting each other as authors ever since. Here’s Susan, telling you about her experience with “the little series that wouldn’t die.”

Judy Penz Sheluk and I were on similar paths a decade ago. After what we thought of as brilliant starts, we were orphaned by our publishers, she with a publisher closing its doors, and me with a publisher dropping its entire mystery line. I must admit for a novice mystery writer, this was a crushing blow. My first two books in The Endurance Mysteries, Three May Keep a Secret and Marry in Haste, would no longer be published by a traditional publisher.

So what was I to do? I decided to independently-publish a third book in the series, Death Takes No Bribes. Between the first and second book, I’d published an e-book novella about my detective called The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney. It was about a cold case that went back to the 1940s when dancing on the rooftops of buildings to the big bands was the trend. I loved researching my parent’s World War II era and music. Learning all the ends and outs of self-publishing was quite a learning curve, but I managed, and when the rights to the first two books in the series reverted to me, I re-published them also.

So, that was it. Done. The series was over with a trilogy and novella. I went in a new direction, got a new publisher and wrote another mystery. But those characters in my first series kept knocking at the door. Ignoring them, I picked up an agent and new book contract for a trilogy whose first book, Death in a Pale Hue, reports for duty in summer 2022. Still, Grace Kimball, TJ Sweeney, and Jeff Maitlin wouldn’t let me ignore them. Nor would a score of secondary characters who provided comic relief and lots of laughs. It was like having an earworm of your favorite song.

This past year I had some time to slip a book in before summer 2022. Those characters from Endurance had danced through my dreams, demanding I keep them alive. To increase that pressure, I received a contract from Harlequin Worldwide Mystery to republish all three of the novels. The third came out this October 1. So now they’d been published three times. I finally gave in, and the result is the fourth book, The Witch’s Child, arriving October 15. Here’s a brief preview of the upcoming paperback and e-book formats.

Fiona Mackenzie returns to Endurance with her mother’s body. Her mother, Sybil, a self-proclaimed witch, was found guilty by an Endurance jury ten years earlier in a double homicide. Sybil died in prison, and Detective TJ Sweeney doesn’t need witchcraft or visions to know Sybil’s presence—alive or dead—will rekindle anger in the small town. But Grace Kimball, retired teacher, is elated to see her former student back. When the murder of a trial participant occurs, the evidence points toward Fiona, the witch’s child. Add vicious whispers and malicious rumors in the local coffee shops, pushy reporters looking for a story, and clashing opinions on social media. The town of Endurance is like a tinderbox just waiting for someone to strike a match.

Susan Van Kirk is the President of the Guppy Chapter of Sisters in Crime and a writer of cozy mysteries. She lives at the center of the universe—the Midwest—and writes during the ridiculously cold and icy winters. Why leave the house and break something? Van Kirk taught forty-four years in high school and college and raised three children. Miraculously, she has low blood pressure. Her Endurance mysteries include Three May Keep a Secret, Marry in Haste, The Locket: From the Casebook of TJ Sweeney (a novella), Death Takes No Bribes and The Witch’s Child. Her Sweet Iron mystery is A Death at Tippitt Pond, also available in audio. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. Find her at www.susanvankirk.com.