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Formerly a Manhattan entertainment attorney and a contributing editor to the quarterly art magazine SunStorm Fine Art, Susan Lynn Solomon now lives in Niagara Falls, New York, where she is in charge of legal and financial affairs for a management consulting firm. After moving to Niagara Falls she became a member of Just Buffalo Literary Center’s Writers Critique Group, and since 2009 many of number of her short stories have appeared in literary journals, including, Abigail Bender (awarded an Honorable Mention in a Writer’s Journal short romance competition), Ginger Man, The Memory Tree, Elvira, Going Home, Yesterday’s Wings, and Sabbath (nominated for 2013 Best of the Net by the editor of Prick of the Spindle).
Her latest short stories are Reunion, about an individual who must face family after undergoing a transgender operation, appeared in a recent issue of Flash Fiction Press, Captive Soul, which was included in Solstice Publishing’s Halloween anthology, Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep, Volume 1, and Niagara Falling, about a man returning to his hometown, which was written for the Solstice Publishing anthology, Adventures in Love.
Susan Lynn Solomon’s Solstice Publishing novel, The Magic of Murder, is available at Amazon.com, and Bella Vita, a short story written for Solstice Publishing’s Summer solstice anthology, continued the adventures for the characters from this novel.
Now, a collection of her short stories, Voices In My Head, has been published by Solstice and is available in both Kindle and paperback editions on Amazon.
Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite
Bella Vita: An Emlyn Goode Murder Mystery is a mystery novella written by Susan Lynn Solomon. It was June 21, the eve of the Summer Solstice, and Emlyn Goode had a full day ahead of her. First, she was off to the Bella Vita Salon in her quest to find something newsworthy to fuel her writer's imagination. Later that evening, she'd be schooled by her friend, Rebecca Nurse, in the traditions and meaning of the Wiccan solstice. Emlyn was particularly interested in Wicca since she learned that she was the direct descendant of Sarah Goode, one of the young girls tried as witches and hanged during the Salem Witch Trials. She even had Sarah's journal, which had been passed down through her family, and found herself referring to it more and more frequently. But what really was troubling Emlyn's mind was that book her agent was pressing her for. It seems one successful novel wasn't enough, but getting started on the next one without a single idea to work with just wasn’t working. As she left her car to go into the salon, however, her thoughts were abruptly jolted back to the present by a speeding car with its horn blaring that cut in front of the MASH Urgent Care Van as she watched. Something was up with George Malone, the driver, and the reactions Emlyn met with inside the hair salon seemed to point to a mystery in the making.
Susan Lynn Solomon's murder mystery novella, Bella Vita: An Emlyn Goode Murder Mystery, is a delightful and thoroughly entertaining cozy mystery with a definite Wiccan edge to it. Mystery enthusiasts and fans of the paranormal will both find something to their fancy in this well-written and deftly plotted tale of a novelist whose amateur sleuthing gets her into trouble with her neighbor, and perhaps love interest in the future, and whose ancestry hints at further Wiccan-flavored mysteries to be solved. I loved the positive slant Solomon gives her Wiccan characters and appreciated learning about the Summer Solstice ritual and its modern-day relevance to the small farmers in the surrounding countryside. I couldn't help but smile as Emlyn seemed to channel my favorite fictional author/sleuth, Jessica Fletcher, as she scopes out news in the town’s beauty salon and loved the author’s references to Rex Stout's iconic Nero Wolfe. Bella Vita: An Emlyn Goode Murder Mystery is most highly recommended.
