Westminster Alumna Enters World of Mystery Writing

Nancy Martin, a 1975 Westminster College graduate and Pittsburgh native, releases her first mystery book, How to Murder a Millionaire, Oct. 1.

An author of bestselling romance novels, Martin has been published in 19 languages around the world, but after 38 love stories, she has turned to her real passion - murder mysteries.

"Martin proves in How to Murder a Millionaire that she has already learned the secret of mystery writing. Who did it?' doesn't matter," said Dr. James Perkins, professor of English and former advisor of Martin. "What is important is where it was done. Martin creates a believable facsimile of upper-class Philadelphia society, and gives her Blackbird sisters a setting that readers will want to come back to again and again. Just as Boston belongs to Spencer, Philadelphia now belongs to Nora Blackbird."

"I write cozy mysteries - books that don't have much violence and very little foul language," said Martin. "There's an old saying among writers. I know I can't change the world, but I can try to improve somebody's afternoon. That's a good goal for a writer."

The book published by Signet will be available at local bookstores Oct. 1. For more information, contact Perkins at (724) 946-7347 or e-mail jperkins@westminster.edu.

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