Author Spotlight: Dorothea in the Mirror: A Jill Szekely Mystery

Lois Santalo was born in Michigan and attended the University of Michigan. She came of age in the period after WWII, a period she still loves to write about. It was a time of great change, when women who’d worked throughout the war and grown used to having their own money were suddenly sent back to the kitchen so the men might have the jobs. Many women rebelled, including Lois, whose wartime marriage to a young musician imploded when she realized it would not accommodate two careers, and his was primary. She remarried, had two children, and then returned to college with her second husband for her Master’s in English. She taught English at Ohio University and later, after publishing her first novel, The Wind Dies at Sunrise, moved to San Diego where she taught creative writing classes.
She worked for some years as Night Director of San Diego’s Big Sister Home, a crisis house for women. During that time, she moonlighted as a reader and ghost writer for agent Bertha Klausner, who urged her to attempt to write Gothic novels. Unfortunately, Gothics proved not to be her proper metier, and she was unhappy with the results, as were the editors. After Bertha’s death, Lois threw out her agent’s advice and wrote to please herself. This proved a much more rewarding experience and she has published six novels in recent years. Most of her books explore in depth the post-WWII era she finds most fascinating. Her Jill Szekely books are as much women’s stories as mysteries.