Illinois Authors

The Illinois Center for the Book banner

Patricia (Pat) Stoltey

Born: 1942 in Chicago, Illinois
Pen Name: None

Connection to Illinois: I was born in Chicago but lived most of my childhood in downstate Illinois on a farm west of Champaign. I attended Seymour Grade School followed by high school at the University of Illinois Lab School in Urbana. My first two years of college were at the C-U campus of the University of Illinois. I spent one year in Oklahoma, then returned to Illinois until 1969. I finished work for my bachelor's degree at Ball State University in Indiana and worked in several states until my husband and I retired to Colorado. My maiden name was Swartz. Much of my family continued to live in Illinois most of their lives so I've been back to the state many times to visit family members. My first published novel, The Prairie Grass Murders (2007), was an amateur sleuth mystery partially set in that part of Illinois where I grew up. My fourth novel was a historical mystery set in East Central Illinois in the early 1800s in the fictitious Village of Sangamon. Wishing Caswell Dead (Five Star/Cengage Learing, December 20, 2017) was a finalist for a 2018 Colorado Book Award in the general fiction category. In Defense of Delia, to be released in November 2022, is set in that same fictitious Village of Sangamon, Illinois, four years later.

Biography: My husband Bill and I live in Northern Colorado with our Scottish Terrier Sassy and a brown tabby Katie Cat. I'm a member of Mystery Writers of America and the Rocky Mountain chapter, Sisters in Crime National and the Colorado Chapter, Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, Northern Colorado Writers, and Pikes Peak Writers. I have served as RMFW blog editor, judge for RMFW Colorado Gold Contest submissions, and as conference and workshop presenter. My first two books were published by Five Star in hardcover and also in paperback by Harlequin's Worldwide Mystery book club. They are now out of print except for the e-books: The Prairie Grass Murders (2007) and The Desert Hedge Murders (2009) are amateur sleuth mysteries. My third published work was Dead Wrong (2014), a 2015 finalist for a Colorado Book Award in the thriller category. It is also available in e-book.


Awards:

Primary Literary Genre(s): Fiction

Primary Audience(s): Adult readers

Blog: http://patriciastolteybooks.com
E-Mail: patriciastoltey@yahoo.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PatStoltey/
Twitter: http://@PStoltey
Web: http://patriciastolteybooks.com


Selected Titles

Dead wrong /
ISBN: 1432829866 OCLC:

Newlywed Lynnette Foster's cop husband punches her in the face, but this first assault will be the last. She leaves him and boards a flight from Miami to Los Angeles. At the airport, a foul-mouthed thug known as Fat Ass Sammy Grick carelessly switches Lynnette's laptop case and his own. Sammy's boss sends a hit man to recover his property. To complicate Lynnette's life, eleven-year-old Grace McCoy follows her off the plane during the Denver layover. When Lynnette discovers her husband was murdered a few hours after she walked out and she's a person of interest, she doubts her life will ever be normal again. Dead Wrong is fast-paced, sure to keep readers turning the pages until the end. --Amazon.com.

  In Defense of Delia: A Sangamon Novel
ISBN: 1432894714 OCLC:

Five Star Publishing 2022

1838: Delia Pritchard gets a chilly reception when she returns to Sangamon, Illinois, after a thirteen-year absence. She’s riding a Palouse stallion, is dressed like a man, has a bullet in her shoulder, and leads a horse with a seven-year-old black boy astride. Some think Delia left at the age of sixteen because she killed her parents and set fire to their cabin with the bodies inside. It is also rumored that Delia runs with outlaws and that she shot a lawman. When Doc Hemmer insists Delia and the boy remain in Sangamon while she recuperates from surgery, he doesn’t realize a vicious gang known as the Biedler brothers is on her trail. Preacher John Claymore, also unaware of the danger, wants to meet Doc’s patient with the beautiful eyes. Farmer Annie Gray kills one of the Biedlers and triggers a violent response from the gang. Delia knows the brothers will be relentless. She brought this disaster down on the town and its residents. Can she save them all?

Wishing Caswell dead /
ISBN: 1432834401 OCLC:

In the early 1800s in a village on the Illinois frontier, young Jo Mae Proud wishes her cruel brother dead. Forced into prostitution by Caswell, Jo Mae discovers she is pregnant and vows to escape. When Caswell is injured by a near lightning hit, he becomes more dangerous, and more hated. The flawed residents of the Village of Sangamon harbor many secrets. Caswell knows them all. Will he tell? Jo Mae runs away and eventually finds shelter with Fish, the old Kickapoo Indian who camps by the river. Wishing Caswell Dead is a historical mystery about the evil that hides within a village, one girl who is determined to save herself and her child, and a violent murder no one wants to solve --

 

 

Accessibility