New and Selected Works
Truth, art, beauty, friendship -- what's worth the risk?
On assignment from the government, Marian Warner heads to a small town in Ohio to investigate the hostilities erupting when an old mission house is nominated for landmark status. Soon the battle goes from nasty letters to a double murder, and Marian discovers this small-town crime strips away the defenses it's taken her years to erect -- and those of someone she loves.

Available at the usual online retailers
"Shelley Costa delivers a sharp, elegant and thoroughly gripping mystery — beautifully plotted and packed with vivid characters. No Mistaking Death will grab you from page one."
— Daniel Stashower,
Edgar award-winning author
". . .a taut exploration into good, evil, and the inescapable truth . . . that sometimes, they wear the same face.
--Kylie Logan, A Trail of Lies (St. Martin’s Press)
"The Knife Sharpener"
A crime story set during
the Battle of Gettysburg
https://alfredhitchcock
mysterymagazine.com/
A new Kindle edition!
A New Kindle Edition!
When her best friend, an antiquities curator, is murdered, NYC editor Val Cameron tracks the leader of a secret religious cult bent on stealing holy relics in pursuit of power.
". . .razor sharp and wickedly hilarious. Highly recommended."
--Seattle Book Mama
Available at the Kindle Store
on Amazon

Truth
matters.
It isn't always comfortable.

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Join Shelley and 100
other authors at the
BUCKEYE BOOK FAIR
Saturday, November 4, 2023
9:30am – 4:00pm
Greystone Event Center
50 Riffel Rd.
Wooster, OH 44691

About
Themes
“Anything I want to read or write comes down to three words: Good Person Struggling. With institutions that don’t make sense. With relationships that strip the heart bare. With the wickedness we can never quite believe exists. Out of that story of struggle, hope starts small, sometimes stays small, but that’s all we really need.”
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Photo credit Rebecca Bloomfield Photography


SHELLEY COSTA is represented by
John Talbot
Talbot Fortune Agency
180 E. Prospect Ave. #188
Mamaroneck, NY 10543
Tel. 914-282-0455
Bio
SHELLEY COSTA’s work has been nominated for both the Edgar and Agatha Awards, and has received a Special Mention for The Pushcart Prize. In addition to several mystery novels, she is the author of short stories in The Georgia Review, North American Review, The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories, Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Blood on Their Hands, and Odd Partners. With a PhD in English, Shelley was on the Liberal Arts faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Art for nearly twenty years.
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Image: Merlin's Cave, Tintagel, Cornwall