Dorothea in the Mirror
A Jill Szekely Mystery
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The last thing I ever expected was that I, or any member of my family, might have a spouse involved in a murder investigation. I mean, I come from a family that's all Ghandi types...I would have said that, raised as I was, it was impossible for me to be attracted to the type of man who could be a party to violence. Certainly, nothing in my experience had prepared me for the shock of learning that the man I'd lived with for five years, even granted he was about to become an ex, might have committed murder. My first impulse was to scream to the world that he didn't do it, he can't have done it, it was impossible, he wasn't the type, he was a musician and the mildest of men, he'd never demonstrated a capacity for violence in all the years I'd lived with him. It took me a while to admit I couldn't be sure of that, and not even a wife could look deep into the soul of another human being. I'm a Szekely at the moment but my maiden name was Gillian Foster, an average sort of name for an average sort of person. There'd have been nothing special about me had I not managed to graduate from the university back in a time when relatively few women went to college--in fact I was the only female in my high school class who did so--and right after graduation contrived to meet Hungarian pianist Zoltan Szekely, who was definitely not your average sort of guy. Dorothea in the Mirror has been selected as one of the top five books for the month of March by Pacific Book Review. The review by Gary Sorkin may be read on their website or on mine: loiswellssantalo.com.
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About the Book
Immigrants in flight from Hitler, the Szekelys were not part of the huddled masses so often associated with Ellis Island. They were highly educated people; their gifted son Zoltan had been a concert pianist since the age of eight, he had performed with symphony orchestras and entertained the troops in India and Asia during World War II. It was hard to think of them in connection with a murder. Yet by a twist of fate, they find themselves involved and their son stands accused of murder.
It seems the ultimate irony that refugee Jewish pianist Zoltan Szekely is arrested for the murder of Dorothea Granger. Has he escaped Hitler’s deadly assault only to become enmeshed in the American legal system? The police believe that they have found their murderer; they feel they have incontrovertible evidence of Zoltan’s guilt. Only his estranged wife, Jill, is in a position to pursue an investigation that might prove his innocence. But Jill, disillusioned after years of struggling to make their marriage work, has left Zoltan. Will she ultimately come through for him and be able to prove his innocence?
About the Author
Lois Wells Santalo is a cancer survivor who began writing in 2001 following a major operation. She always wanted to be a writer and had published a young adult book in 1965, as well as some magazine articles. She lives in California with her daughter, son-in-law and two cats.