About The Author

I have had two very different careers. After earning my PHD in American History at the University of Wisconsin, I taught American Culture at the University of Maryland. During my years there, I published eleven books on subjects ranging from American religion and science to the juvenile delinquency panic of the 1950s. I was fortunate to spend several years abroad on fellowships in the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, and Australia, and I taught at the University of Paris and Warwick University in the UK. I retired as distinguished University Professor at Maryland.

Beginning then, I turned to writing fiction. I have since published a book of short stories, three novels in a mystery series (the Amanda Pennyworth Mysteries), and three other novels, set in Illinois where I grew up.