Carol Potenza

Tightly plotted and intelligent | Science and Suspense | Eerie Spirits and Visions | Action-Packed Thrills | Slow Burn Romance

Incredible, Amazing Publisher’s Weekly Review!

Sting of Lies

The Lies Series Book #1

Potenza (the Nicky Matthews series) pairs an idiosyncratic sleuth with a rip-roaring plot in this promising series launch. Gruff paleontologist and poison expert Myrna Lee, whose colorful past includes stealing from Siberian ivory hunters who subsequently threatened her with a rocket launcher, is seeking evidence to support her theory that human ancestors hunted prehistoric megafauna, including mammoths, with poison. With few promising leads and her grant funds drying up, Lee is thrilled to learn that a New Mexico ranch owned by the influential Donavan family houses a collection of artifacts that could help prove her thesis. Lee attempts to persuade matriarch Sylvia Donavan to give her access to the collection if she solves the mystery of what, or who, is poisoning elks on the ranch—deaths which, if they’re made public, could scuttle the presidential aspirations of Sylvia’s husband, Charles. Lee’s mission grows even more complicated when she finds evidence that the poisonings were intentional, then discovers the body of an apparent murder victim on the property. Potenza peppers the action with plenty of enjoyable plot twists, and Lee’s endearingly antisocial antics make her a refreshingly iconoclastic lead. Readers will be eager for the sequel.

For RIP-ROARING READS (I SO love that!) stay up-to-date with Carol’s latest work by checking out the blog, or subscribing to her author newsletter here.

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BOOKS BY CAROL POTENZA

The Nicky Matthews Mystery Series

Hearts of the Missing

The Tony Hillerman Prize winning first book in the Nicky Matthews Mystery series. Members of the Fire-Sky Pueblo have gone missing, but no one seems to notice except a young woman who turns up dead in an apparent suicide. Pueblo Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews is assigned to the case and pressured by her superiors to close it quickly. But as Nicky’s investigation deepens, she discovers that the young woman and the Pueblo’s missing were targeted for murder—hunted because of their ancestry and genetics. With a hostile captain, interference by a politically powerful ex-lover, and a burgeoning relationship with one of the undercover agents, Nicky doesn’t know who she can trust.

AMAZON

The Third Warrior

Ancient prophecies and a stalking death. “They say the chief decided to approach this god of death and fire and called for volunteers. They say four brave warriors stepped forward to run into the fire. No one knew the warriors would return alive.” Three brothers who coveted the title of sacred fetish carver are dead. Is it murder? Or did the vengeful spirit of the god of death and fire require their sacrifice? A vulnerable young boy is the only one left to inherit. Can Fire-Sky Pueblo Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews protect him? With the tension, heat, and body count rising, Nicky’s actions take a reckless and dangerous turn, driven by elements outside of her control.

AMAZON

Spirit Daughters

A treasure beyond value. Her mother’s life on the line. When a murder victim falls out of a closet at Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews’ feet, her investigation leads her to a powerful tribal fertility medicine. What Nicky keeps secret is that this medicine was once at the center of her father’s scientific research. He’d isolated the single most-important compound in a fertility treatment worth a fortune … and worth killing for. But when her father vanished, the identity and location of the plant that produced this compound was lost. Or was it? Nicky’s archeologist mother may hold the key to the plant’s rediscovery which makes her the target of the desperate killers.

AMAZON

Nicky Matthews

Series

Go To Series

De-Extinct Zoo

Series

Go To Series

The Lies Mystery

Series

Go To Series

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Hi, I’m Carol Potenza.

I live in southern New Mexico with my husband, Leos, and I love my adopted state and the desert southwest. It’s beautiful, and its strong multicultural history has been shaped by diverse peoples and cultures that seep into my stories. My home town, Las Cruces, sits nestled at the bottom of the Organ Mountains to the east and the Rio Grande valley to the west. It’s the second largest city in the state, but has a wonderful small town feeling, and every fall, the scent of roasting green chile fills the air. I have a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from UC San Diego and worked in a plant genetic engineering laboratory at New Mexico State University for years before I moved to full time teaching—Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, and then retired to write full-time.

The paranormal and “visions” I add to some of my books come from true stories told to me by relatives and friends who experienced them first hand—and their words can be hair-raising. I knew as I listened to their true ghost stories, I’d need to write them down and blend them into my fiction because I love that shivery feeling. I myself am not sensitive … except for one time. Ask me about it if we ever meet. It was a pretty neat experience.

I love to blend strong women sleuths, paranormal, and mystery with science to create my BiocheMysteries. And check out my Zoo Mystery series, which brings futuristic science fiction and genetic engineering to create a place where de-extinct animals roam. So many story ideas, and so little time! 😉 I hope you enjoy my books.

A De-Extinct Zoo Mystery

UNMASKED

Catch the Killer, Save the Bear. Veterinarian Milly Smith is living her dream, working in a zoo populated by de-extinct creatures resurrected from ancient DNA: Mammoths and mastodons, dire wolves and do-dos, camelops and saber-toothed cats. But a routine surgery on a massive short-faced bear goes horribly wrong and a colleague is dead. The bear is slated to be destroyed unless Milly can prove the animal was used by a diabolical killer as a murder weapon. A killer whose attention has turned to Milly.

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Click on a periodic table element to learn how it contributed to human death past, present, and future.

Periodic table element Titanium with Ti abbreviation and atomic number. Spilled Skittles Candy is in the background — 22 Titanium

Periodic Table Depiction of Arsenic (As) with a Skull on top of gold books — 33 Arsenic

Listen to Carol Potenza’s Podcast

Periodic Table of Death and Mystery

Take a coffee break with us—5 to 10 minutes—and explore historical and contemporary mysteries and death surrounding the universal periodic table of elements.

Available on your favorite podcast services!

Listen to the Podcast

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT CAROL POTENZA

Endorsements and Testimonials

Nicky’s temperament is another interesting twist. She is clearly not the perfect heroine investigator. I sometimes was angry with her for being oversensitive to imagined slights, and other times delighted with her courage.

S.L.

-for Spirit Daughters

“Carol Potenza’s award winning debut novel is a fascinating page turner that will leave readers anxious for the next in the installment. Pueblo Police Sergeant, Nicky Mathews, blends science, mysticism and cunning police work as she investigates a tribal murder that leaves her life in jeopardy. Thoroughly researched and masterfully plotted, Hearts of the Missing uses the atmospheric beauty of New Mexico to fully make… Read more “Tricia Fields”

Tricia Fields, The Josie Gray Mystery Series

- for Hearts of the Missing

“The Hearts of the Missing is engrossing, bewitching, and compelling. Filled with the natural enchantment of its New Mexico setting, this story of an intrepid detective in Native American culture and her FBI partner kept me rapt and delighted.”

Jeffe Kennedy, RITA® Award winning author of The Twelve Kingdoms and The Uncharted Realms

- for Hearts of the Missing

“Hearts of the Missing is a stunning debut. It’s compelling, intelligent, and brilliantly designed. Brava, Miss Potenza! I couldn’t put it down.”

Darynda Jones - NY Time Bestselling Author

- for Hearts of the Missing

“In the Hillerman tradition, Carol Potenza’s Hearts of the Missing winds and weaves together like a Tsiba’ashi D’yini basket holding one fine mystery.”

Craig Johnson, author of the Walt Longmire Mysteries, the basis for the Netflix drama Longmire

- for Hearts of the Missing

Tony Hillerman Prize Winner 2017 ‘Hearts of the Missing’ by Carol Potenza “New Mexico is a spectacular setting for mysteries, and Carol Potenza puts its majestic landscape to unexpected and thrilling use.”

David Morrell. New York Times bestselling author of Murder As a Fine Art

- for Hearts of the Missing

“Getting hooked on Carol Potenzas character Nicki Mathews. I just finished Third Warrior after reading Hearts of the Missing, also Nicki Mathews mystery set in New Mexico. The character Nicky Mathews has evolved in the past two books. She’s somewhat of a mystery herself. As a strong but vulnerable person she keeps up a a independent professional life when possible. Yet she has a inner… Read more “Nina Hampton”

Nina Hampton (Goodreads)

- for The Third Warrior

“I’ve been a long-time fan of Tony Hillerman since my father introduced me to those mysteries way back in the early 1970s. Since then, I’ve read every Tony Hillerman book and, being raised in the Southwest, love how he (and later his daughter, Anne Hillerman) capture the aura of the land and its people so beautifully and with such empathy. Author Carol Potenza’s debut novel,… Read more “Suanne Schafer”

Suanne Schafer

- for The Third Warrior

https://suanneschaferauthor.com/book-review-the-third-warrior/

“Author Carol Potenza is now on my automatic-buy list. I have read every Tony Hillerman book and, being raised in the Southwest, loved how he (and later his daughter Anne Hillerman) captured so beautifully the aura of the land and its people. Author Carol Potenza’s debut novel, Hearts of the Missing, won the Tony Hillerman Prize for Best First Mystery Set in the Southwest and… Read more “SuZreader”

SuZreader

- for Nicky Matthews Mystery Series

“Tony Hillerman Prize recipient Carol Potenza strikes gold with her upcoming police procedural debut Hearts of the Missing.”

New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo

- for Hearts of the Missing

“The spirit of Tony Hillerman hovers over every page of Carol Potenza’s debut novel Hearts of the Missing (Minotaur), so it’s no surprise that, when still unpublished, it won the 2017 Hillerman Prize for the best first mystery set in the Southwest.”

Neil Nyren BookTrib

- for Hearts of the Missing

“I loved all the suspense, mystery and surprises in this book. There was so much suspense that it had me hooked to the storyline and I was so into uncovering the mystery of what was going on that I flew through this book and felt myself on the edge of my seat as I was reading through the chapters….I really enjoyed reading about Nicky’s characters.… Read more “Booksonthebookshelf”

Booksonthebookshelf.wordpress.com

- for Hearts of the Missing

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