MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Sunbury Press has released the first three books in Alma Bond's Mary Wells Psychiatrist Mystery series titles: The Deadly Jigsaw Puzzle, Murder on the Streetcar, and Who Killed Marcia Maynard?
About the Books:
The Deadly Jigsaw Puzzle: Mary's patient, Veronica Vail, was murdered in her Park Avenue apartment. Lt. John Franklin asks for her help in finding the killer. They interview her husband Roland, his daughter by a former marriage who never liked Veronica, and Carlos de la Cuesta, a handsome, black-haired drag queen in love with Roland. Lt. Franklin hypothesizes that a stranger broke into the Vail apartment to steal a painting. Roland confirms that an expensive painting has disappeared. A maid named Lottie Lobell tells them that while looking out the window on the day of the murder, she saw a black-haired man run away from the building carrying a painting. He is found and brought in for questioning. Using purely psychological clues, Mary confronts all the suspects with the truth. The killer collapses under her inquisition, and confesses.
Murder on the Streetcar: Dr. Mary Wells is a psychoanalyst, whose patient, Cecily Johnson, is playing the part of Stella in a new production of “A Streetcar Named Desire.” Cecily gives the doctor two tickets to see a performance of the play. She invites Lt. John Franklin, a detective who is her lover, to accompany her. During a particularly rowdy scene, the sound of a shot is heard. The audience thinks it is part of the play, until the stage manager comes out and announces that a person has been shot back stage and the performance cannot continue. The murdered man is the actor playing Stanley Kowalski. Lt. Franklin takes on the case. After checking out the ballistics and interrogating the cast, he and Dr. Wells conclude that one of the actors in the play was the killer. They consider possible motives for the murder by each actor. Utilizing Dr. Wells’ psychological expertise and Lt. Franklin’s experience and perceptiveness, they are able to eliminate some performers, while others remain under suspicion. Through an idea of Dr. Wells to have the cast reenact the death scene, she and the Lieutenant are able to discover and apprehend the killer.
Who Killed Marcia Maynard?: Dr. Marcia Maynard, famous child psychoanalyst and infant researcher, was murdered in her bed at the El Dorado Apartment House in Manhattan by an unknown killer. Psychoanalyst Mary Wells helps solve the mystery with her astute analytical and psychological skills. In conjunction with her lover Detective John Franklin, they are an almost unstoppable team.
Dr. Wells and Lt. Franklin are devastated to hear that his “Auntie Marcie” and Well’s colleague and former analyst has been murdered. The pair, who are both in mourning for Maynard, need all their wits about them as they question her colleagues, staff, and friends.
Finding someone angry enough to kill Maynard was not difficult, as many people had been mistreated by the doctor. The suspects included her beautiful Indian housekeeper, Asha Rupashi, whom Maynard continually abused and who was a beneficiary in Maynard’s will, her chief associate for 30 years, Dr. James Whirter, a man her colleagues said she treated “like a lapdog,” Rogerio Chavez, a Chinese restaurant delivery man, whom Maynard had insulted and infuriated, and several suitors whom she had rejected. The book ends with the killer opening up under ingenious psychological questioning by Dr. Wells, who then falls into Lt. Franklin’s arms.
About the Author: Dr. Alma H. Bond is the author of twenty-one published books, including, most recently, Marilyn Monroe: On the Couch, Jackie: On the Couch, Lady Macbeth: On the Couch; Michelle Obama: A Biography; The Autobiography of Maria Callas; Margaret Mahler: A Biography of the Psychoanalyst; Camille Claude: A Novel; America’s First Woman Warrior: The Story of Deborah Sampson; and Who Killed Virginia Woolf? A Psychobiography. Dr. Bond received her Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Columbia University, graduated from the post-doctoral program in psychoanalysis at the Freudian Society, and was a psychoanalyst in private practice for 37 years in New York City. She “retired” to become a full-time writer, but now maintains a small practice in addition to writing. Dr. Bond is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, the Dramatists Guild, and the Authors Guild, as well as a fellow and faculty member of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, the International Psychoanalytic Association, and the American Psychological Association. She was one of the first non-medical analysts to be elected to the International Psychoanalytic Association. Dr. Bond grew up in Philadelphia, where she obtained her undergraduate degree in psychology from Temple University, and following voluntary military service, moved to New York, where she earned a Ph D. in psychology from Columbia University. A longtime resident of New York City, she lived for nearly a dozen years in south Florida, and now resides in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The Deadly Jigsaw Puzzle