Deadlines, Vol. 2, Murder and Mayhem on the California Coast

Deadlines, Vol. 2, Murder and Mayhem on the California Coast
183 Pages
ISBN 978-1941465-17-2

Deadlines Volume 2 is the second part of an anthology of stories from the members of the Central Coast Chapter of national crimewriters' organization, Sisters in Crime. Fourteen stories, long and short, tell of murder and its aftermath at locations along the Central Coast. There are amateur sleuths, cops, detectives, and some pretty devious murderers in these pages. Lani Steele's SEANCE IS BELIEVING is based on the actual unsolved murder of a young girl, which took place in Montana de Oro over thirty years ago. In Steele's take, sometimes local Kaia Malama takes on the case to help her friend, the victim's niece. Kaia splits her time between the Central Coast and Kaua'i, and is featured in other stories by Steele. Other authors featured in Deadlines include Krista Lynn, Susan Tuttle, Tony Piazza, Mary Moses, Janice Konstantinidis, Paul Alan Fahey, Dianne Emley, JoAnne Lucas, Victoria Heckman, and Judythe Guarnera. Many local readers will be familiar with some or most of these writers.

Lani C Steele

About Lani C Steele (San Luis Obispo, California Author)

Lani C Steele

The short mystery fiction of Lani Steele has been published in Red Herring Mystery Magazine, Mystery Weekly, and in several volumes of Central Coast Sisters in Crime anthologies. Absence is No Alibi is written as the first in a proposed series featuring Ross Talbot, a school counselor / amateur detective, and his wife Carole, who writes mysteries and meddles in his investigations. The story is set in the early 1990’s in several towns along California’s scenic Central Coast, which was at that time far less developed than it is today.

Steele’s other publications include two stand-alone volumes of poetry, CROWDED WITH GHOSTS, about Native American themes and history, and A PLAGUE OF ANGELS, exploring some off-center angelic personas. Her work has been included in many poetry anthologies, and her poetry, fiction, and non-fiction features and travel articles have been published in local and national magazines. She has served as editor of several poetry collections, and was a founding member of the Central Coast Sisters in Crime Chapter.

Steele, recently retired, was an educator at elementary, secondary, and college level, serving for over 25 years as an instructor and teacher-trainer in the Education Department at Cal Poly. She was also the head of English Department at Brent International School, Manila, teaching higher level world literature in the International Baccalaureate program. She lives in Los Osos, California, with her husband Gary Mickle. They have four children who are far-flung around the globe, feeding the couple’s travel addiction nicely.