Kathleen Valenti Books In Order

Publication Order of Maggie O'Malley Mystery Books

Author Kathleen Valenti has written professionally for over twenty years. At first she was a copy writer, a nationally award winner, before turning to writing mystery novels. Valenti feels that dead pan can truly be right on, and when writing, combines frightening with humorous to make books that are hard to put down that are suspense and mystery.

She lives in the state of Oregon with her family, where she only pretends to enjoy running. She is known for having horrid penmanship, a love for Monty Python that is just unnatural, red wine, and black licorice.

She has a degree in the field of English literature, and enjoys reading authors such as: Stephen King, Harlen Coben, Hemingway, Jane Austen, and William Faulkner. All of these authors are always sources of inspiration for her work.

Valenti began publishing the “Maggie O’Malley Mystery” series in the year 2017, when “Protocol” was released. This is also her debut novel. “Protocol” was nominated for both a Lefty and an Agatha award.

The origins of the technology part of “Protocol” came from something that happened in her own real life. She and her husband sent their laptop in to the company that manufactured it so it could be repaired, and they returned it with a hard drive that belonged to someone else. It was complete with the other person’s contents.

She combined this with some of the recent news at the time about the profit motives that pharmaceutical companies had with the public good. This allowed Valenti to come up with a mystery that had some high stakes.

She came up with the idea for the novel around 2011, but did not know a whole lot about the subject matter. She was quite a bit out of her natural element, and was able to have friends in various medical and pharmaceutical fields to play fact checkers for her work as well as do some online research.

At first, she thought the novel would be easy for her to write. When she started out with the story, she made no deadlines to finish and she was not even writing everyday, just whenever she wanted to. After she got to a certain point with the book, started to crack down and discipline herself about word counts the more she wrote the book. She told herself that she could do it the entire time she was writing it.

It is quite a different thing altogether, though to put together the 75 words for a television spot that she did for her day job against the more rigorous ninety thousand words that comes with a novel.

When trying to get an agent, it took two years and fifty responses, all telling her no before she got one. The rejections never deterred her one bit, as she felt that these rejections were positive, and she got feedback and a lot of reads from the experience. It all told her that she was going on the right track.

Months after getting an agent, she got an offer from a boutique publisher in Texas, which is called Henry Press that specializes in women’s fiction and mystery novels. They signed her to a three book deal to write about Maggie O’Malley, although originally, the book was written as only a stand alone work.

“Protocol” is the first novel in the “Maggie O’Malley Mystery” series which was released in the year 2017. Maggie O’Malley, just graduated from college sets off with her career that is powered by her desire to distance herself between her past and her own professional ambition. Working as a pharmaceutical researcher, she wants to save people’s lives from her lab and the shelter it offers.

The first day she is on the job is the one that pulls her into an uncertain world. There are reminders showing up on her phone with people that she never scheduled meetings with or even met. These are people that end up dead.

Maggie, with assistance from her best friend, finds that these victims on her phone are connected to her new employer as well as each other. She quickly finds a sinister plot that puts her mission in jeopardy and threatens her life. She has to unlock some deadly secrets to put an end to terrifying abuses of power, before death itself comes knocking upon her door.

Fans of the novel found this to be a smart, fast paced, and a surprising read. Some had a hard time believing this was a debut novel, by just how well written it was. As it was able to hook the reader and not let them go at all. It is a powerhouse of a read, with a descriptive writing style that is able to bring this one to life. You are taken right into the middle of all the action, and enjoy the attention to detail the author writes with. There are readers that were able to read this in just a single sitting.

“39 Winks” is the second novel in the “Maggie O’Malley Mystery” series which was released in the year 2018. Maggie, who no longer works as a pharmaceutical researcher, cannot get sleep. Constantine, her boyfriend, has an aunt that multitasks while sleepwalking. One winter night, she finds her husband, dead, after his throat has been cut. It is a brutal and gorey way to wake up that upsets Aunt Polly. It interests the police quite a bit too.

Maggie and Constantine get together to figure out who murdered the mogul of cosmetic surgery and why they would do it. While they dig into the people that knew the guy best, and find that truth is really only skin deep. Doctoring perception is just a treatment that comes with some deadly side effects.

Fans of the novel found this to be a gripping and page turner of a book that is tough to tear away from. Some think this one might even be better than the first book in the series, which is saying a lot since the first one was excellent too. Readers hope that this series keeps coming out with quality books, just like this one was, as once again, the author delivers a stellar book.