“More than a witness but less than an active participant, I was a bit actor whose role in the crime shaped my life.”
The murder of Betty Frye had gone unpunished for decades when Kane, ex-wife of Betty’s son Doug, finally decided to tell her story by fictionalizing that brutal homicide. The result was the novel Quiet Time, which helped bring a forgotten cold case roaring back to life. In her new true-crime non-fiction, True CrimeRedux, Kane, writing on the murder’s fiftieth anniversary, artfully depicts the events leading up to the murder and its fascinating, decades-long aftermath.
True Crime Redux is the saga of an American family plagued by mental illness, struggling to adjust to the demands of a rapidly changing world, and involuntarily coping with a significant outsider who suddenly enters the scene.
And it is a raw, revealing look at the criminal justice system from the vantage point of a lawyer with the shoe suddenly on the other foot, thrust into the quicksand of being a witness in a cold case investigation and prosecution.
"Readers will be entranced by this complex story, which moves through emotional turbulence and criminal investigations alike. The tale assumes the factual deliverance of a memoir, a crime probe, and a literary reflection as it embeds its story with the authority of solid literary expression… Kane's probe of murder, crime, family connections, and the psychological ramifications of confession and eventual justice is nothing short of riveting."
"The mountain of details that Kane lays out for the reader makes her account so riveting.”
"Powerful in its delivery, [True Crime Redux] will not just keep your attention until the end, but it will speak to your interest and your heart. Five out of five stars!"
"A thrilling and complex narrative published 50 years after the horrific murder it chronicles. The author is simultaneously catalyst, witness (of the homicide’s aftermath, of the survivors’ behavior, and later giving testimony in the courtroom), family member, detective (an amateur yet expert), lawyer, literary critic, master stylist, and primarily effective storyteller. With rapid-fire short chapters and staccato sentences, it is a compelling,
captivating, and clearly five-star book."
"From first page to last, True Crime Redux is a fascinating combination of murder mystery, true crime, and memoir. Author Stephanie Kane, a master-storyteller, skillfully weaves her personal story into the decades-long attempt by the legal system to bring a murderer—her father-in-law—to justice. I can’t think of any other such books that are as spell-binding."
When Adam and Eve Castle bring their miniature dioramas to Denver to train cops in crime-scene investigation, a string of baffling murders follows. Called in to solve the crimes depicted in the dioramas, paintings conservator Lily Sparks discerns connections between them and the real murders which draw her into the orbit of a killer intent on going from master of a tiny universe to playing God.Each diorama parallels a real crime. But why is the killer reenacting the diorama murders on a life-sized stage? Are the dioramas roadmaps for the crimes, or are the victims being targeted based on the homes and lifestyles the dioramas represent? To catch the killer, Lily must now embark on a deadly new game of house played by a psychopath’s rules.
Object Lessons is Stephanie Kane’s third crime novel set in the art world featuring Lily Sparks. It follows Automat and A Perfect Eye.
"A whodunit that delivers an excellent gallery of characters and captivating historical tidbits."
“Object Lessons” is the third in Kane’s successful Lily Sparks series, and the best so far. Denverites will enjoy Kane’s many references to local restaurants and neighborhoods, and readers in general will be absorbed in this tightly written mystery with all its twists and turns. Kane comes through again with a whodunnit that is a delight to read.”
Who is the enigmatic woman in Edward Hopper’s famous painting, Automat? When the young actress playing her is brutally murdered at the launch of The Denver Art Museum’s blockbuster Hopper exhibition, Conservator of Paintings Lily Sparks feels compelled to use her special gift of discernment to solve the crime. Her perfect eye tells her that just as the celebrated artist kept painting the same iconic woman, the killer must keep killing her.
The stony blonde in Hopper’s paintings never aged. As Lily’s hunt takes her from the artist’s early years in Paris to her own museum’s exhibition to the theatrical company bringing the paintings to life, she realizes the man in Hopper’s paintings also holds clues to the killer’s identity. Is stepping into a painting herself the only way Lily can stop him?
Automat is Stephanie Kane’s second crime novel set in the art world featuring Lily Sparks. It follows A Perfect Eye, which Kirkus Reviews calls, “An artistic thriller that will keep readers guessing.”
“Kane delivers yet again for fans of fine art and whodunnits.”
"Wonderfully disorientating"
“Automat is an intriguing mystery, and you will also learn a lot about artist Edward Hopper.”
“Automat is an intense drama that keeps you on the edge of your seat.”
Some are born with a perfect palate, others with perfect pitch. Lily Sparks was born with a perfect eye. As Conservator of Paintings at the Denver Art Museum, she uses her keen visual powers to restore masterpieces and detect what’s authentic and what is not. When the museum’s billionaire benefactor is brutally murdered and Lily is dragged into the case, the grisly tableau stuns her: it’s the human embodiment of the museum’s prized landscape by famed Impressionist Gustave Caillebotte.
“An artistic thriller that will keep readers guessing and please the author’s fans.”
“Lily Sparks’ keen powers of observation and Stephanie Kane’s snappy, hard-edged writing make for a highly original mystery that provides a whole gallery full of heart-pounding chills.”
“Denver readers will love this book. The city is on almost every page–the Brown Palace, The Mark Twain apartments, South Broadway antique stores, the Rockies even the Tropics and Tempest Storm. A PERFECT EYE is an absorbing mystery set in familiar territory. A bonus: You learn an awful lot about art restoration.”
“This really is one of those books you can’t put down. It is both an enlightening and wonderfully told inside story of the world of art curators and forgeries and a gripping thriller. You wonder why you didn’t see the ending coming, which is truly the mark of a compelling and skillfully told mystery.”
Extreme Indifference and Seeds Of Doubt have won a Colorado Book Award for Mystery and Colorado Authors League Awards for Genre Fiction.
Author BioSee all the Stephanie Kane Books
COLORADO AUTHORS LEAGUE AWARD WINNER
COLORADO BOOK AWARD WINNER
COLORADO AUTHORS LEAGUE AWARD WINNER
