Profile: U.P. Author Publishes Second Mystery

Jane Nordberg, writing for The Daily Mining Gazette of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, recently conducted an interview with local author Nancy Barr, whose 2nd mystery to feature reporter and amateur sleuth Robin Hamilton is being published this month.

In Page One: Vanished, Robin spies a dusty old scrapbook in a bookstore with a cover photo of a young girl with golden brown eyes. Inside, newspaper clippings from regional newspapers cover the girl's sudden disappearance on her last day of school in 1974. Robin’s journalist instincts come alive and she starts asking questions about the scrapbook and the girl whose body was never found.

Nordberg notes that Barr introduces a new character in this book, Aunt Gina, that will provide Hamilton with the impetus to deal with the early loss of her mother and the murder of her fiance; two events that she is unwilling to face.

“Robin has not dealt well with her loss,” Barr said. “In fact, she hasn’t dealt with it at all. Aunt Gina helps her learn that it’s okay to open up and break through.” Barr also adds that Page One: Vanished is considerably darker than her first book.

Barr is already at work on the third book in the series, called Page One: White Out. The title refers to the U.P.’s legendary winters as well as its drug trade. For that novel, Barr will draw upon her experiences as a reporter with the Daily Press, where she covered drug cases on the law enforcement beat.

Read the rest of the interview with Nancy Barr on MiningGazette.com here.

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