• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header left navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Endorsements
  • Books
  • Periodic Table of Death
  • Contact
  • Blog
Carol Potenza

Carol Potenza

New Mexico Mysteries

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Goodreads
Carol Potenza's website header

Blog

NEW from the Award-Winning Author of Hearts of the Missing

May 19, 2021 by Carol Potenza

THE THIRD WARRIOR/Coming Summer 2021 Ancient prophecies and murder When Fire-Sky Pueblo Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews is lured by an eerie spirit to the body of a missing cowboy, it should’ve been a cut and dry case—the New Mexico summer heat must have driven the poor guy to cool off in an isolated water tank with tragic consequences. But as Nicky investigates the cowboy’s erratic last days, his death turns more and more sinister. Betrayals close to home Someone in the Fire-Sky police department is warning Albuquerque’s most vicious drug gang of undercover operations on the Pueblo. Begging Nicky to …

Read moreNEW from the Award-Winning Author of Hearts of the Missing
Iron and the Periodic Table of Death

Iron and the Periodic Table of DEATH

July 29, 2020 by Carol Potenza

Iron (Fe) Ore, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald*, and the Periodic Table of Death. Actually, it was taconite iron pellets—marbled-sized balls made from Iron (Fe), the most abundant metal in Earth, making up 35% of the Earth’s core (1). To make Taconite, powdered and processed Fe ore is blended with a binder clay, rolled, and fired into a pellet form (2). Taconite pellets were loaded onto the enormous ships that once sailed in abundance across the Great Lakes to the steel mills that made up the blue-collar beating heart of the U.S. in the 1970s. One of those ships was the SS …

Read moreIron and the Periodic Table of DEATH
Sulfur and the Periodic Table of Death

Sulfur and the Periodic Table of DEATH

July 29, 2020 by Carol Potenza

When your Periodic Table of DEATH image is on an actual DEATH CERTIFICATE. My aunts spoke about my great-grandfather in those low-voiced side-of-the-mouth conversations… Because he was a monster. Oh, not the serial-killer kind. But the explosive at-the-drop-of-the-hat temper kind…and his wife, Maria, apparently took the brunt of it, although his nine children probably saw the back of his hand more than once. He’d emigrated from the Campania region in Italy in the 1890s (I’ve also heard he was KICKED OUT of Italy because his strident politics), and bought a house and mill on a creek in Franklin, Massachusetts. Based on his death certificate, he worked …

Read moreSulfur and the Periodic Table of DEATH
Chromium and the Periodic Table of Death

Chromium and the Periodic Table of DEATH

July 29, 2020 by Carol Potenza

Remember the movie Erin Brockovich (1)? Julia Roberts played a single mom fighting Pacific, Gas & Electric for contaminating the groundwater of Hinkley, California with hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI).  True Story. Those poor folks in Hinkley had to contend with increased levels of cancer, allergic reactions, itchy rashes, crusty skin lesions, and kidney and liver failure (2). But then why is Cr used everywhere in everyday life? And I mean everywhere (3). It’s in stainless steel flatware, the bumpers of older model cars, the shiny plating on tools like rachets, sockets, and wrenches, and leather tanning (just FYI, I’m never buying …

Read moreChromium and the Periodic Table of DEATH
Helium and the Periodic Table of Death

Helium and the Periodic Table of DEATH

July 29, 2020 by Carol Potenza

Helium and the Periodic Table of DEATH We’ve all done it—sucked in helium (He) from birthday party balloons to sound like Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz (1). But helium and homicide? Hey, humans are nothing if not ingenious. I’ll illustrate with a relatively recent case that befuddled the police, at least, for a little while. Let’s start with the properties of He because they are essential for our story. Helium is the second lightest and second most abundant element in the universe after Hydrogen. One of seven noble gases on the Periodic Table, it’s found as a common component …

Read moreHelium and the Periodic Table of DEATH

Provenance Cone Rubbing Rocks

February 23, 2020 by Carol Potenza

Close your eyes. Imagine lush, grassy plains dotted with playas rolling to distant blue mountains west and south. Other than a few crusty black lava flows, the only interruption is a reddish cone-shaped mountain, its rocky sides coated with yellow-green lichen. It’s cold, even though it’s early summer, the skies covered in heavy clouds scudding eastward over a range of jagged peaks just visible on the horizon. A bugle sounds, a trumpeting that starts as a low rumble and shudders through your chest before it rises and echoes. It originates from a herd of huge lumpish-brown animals—you mistake them for …

Read moreProvenance Cone Rubbing Rocks
  • Previous
  • Go to page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Go to page 4
  • Go to page 5
  • Go to page 6
  • Go to page 7
  • Go to page 8
  • Next

SIGN UP FOR CAROL’S NEWSLETTER

And get her latest mystery, “Unmasked: A De-Extinct Zoo Mystery” completely FREE!

  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Blog
  • For Book Clubs
  • Extras
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

Sign up for Carol’s Newsletter

When you sign up, you’ll receive Carol’s latest mystery, “Unmasked: A De-Extinct Zoo Mystery” completely FREE!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Goodreads
  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Blog
  • For Book Clubs
  • Extras
  • Testimonials
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms & Conditions

Other Books by Carol Potenza

Nicky Matthews Mysteries

The Third Warrior

Buy This Book Online
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Apple Books
Buy from Barnes and Noble
Buy from Barnes and Noble Nook
Buy from Google Play
Buy from Kobo
Abe Books
Booktopia
Fantastic Fiction
The Third Warrior
Buy now!
The Third Warrior

Hearts of the Missing: A Mystery

Buy This Book Online
Buy from Amazon
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Apple Books
Buy from Audible.com
Buy from Barnes and Noble Nook
Buy from Books-A-Million
Buy from IndieBound
Buy from Kobo
Abe Books
BookWorks
COAS Books
Collected Works Bookstore
The Poisoned Pen Bookstore
Hearts of the Missing: A Mystery
Buy now!
Hearts of the Missing: A Mystery

Spirit Daughters

Buy This Book Online
Buy from Amazon
Buy from GoodReads
Buy from Book Depository
Buy from Amazon Kindle
Buy from Barnes and Noble Nook
Buy from Kobo
Spirit Daughters
Buy now!
Spirit Daughters
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Goodreads

Copyright © 2022 · Carol Potenza All Rights Reserved.
Website by Stormhill Media