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.
Nicky Matthews
Series
De-Extinct Zoo
Series
The Lies Mystery
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.
Click on a periodic table element to learn how it contributed to human death past, present, and future.
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!
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT CAROL POTENZA
Endorsements and Testimonials
RECENT POSTS FROM CAROL POTENZA
Blog Post Feed
(Time) Traveling on My Mind
As you might have guessed, I always weave science into my fiction. Hearts of the Missing, genetics and genealogy (Tony Hillerman Prize) The Third Warrior, toxic waste clean-up with infective biological organisms Spirit Daughters, parthenogenesis (Daphne Du Maurier Award) Sacred Ghosts (hopefully out …
Boron, Death Valley Days, and the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery
Boron = boring? That’s kinda-sorta why this atomic element didn’t get attention earlier in the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery series. Boron literally never came up in organic or biochemistry. It’s considered nonessential for human life (1) based on the biochemist’s periodic table, and it’s not …
Silicon, the Stone Age, and the Periodic Table of Death and Mystery
“Evolutionary mismatch” is a concept developed in the field of evolutionary psychology. The concept postulates that human brains are wired for conditions that no longer exist. That “we have stone-age brains in modern environments,” and our primitive brains still drive our behaviors (1, 2). But what …