Longtime newspaper columnist Nancy Crochiere will discuss her fiction debut novel, “Graceland,” on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 6 p.m. at the Adams Center, 33 Summer St.
Hope Robinson can’t seem to please anyone lately, especially not her mother, the flamboyant soap star Olivia Grant. Olivia loves Elvis more than Jesus and, convinced she’s dying, insists on a final visit to Graceland. Unfortunately, that’s the one place Hope can’t take her. Hope fled Memphis years ago with a shameful secret and a vow never to return. Olivia, though, doesn’t understand the word no. Instead, she wrangles Hope’s pink-haired daughter, Dylan, to drive her to Memphis by promising to reveal the mystery of her long-lost father. Hope must stop them before they expose the truth and all hell breaks loose.
As the women race from Boston to Memphis, encountering jealous soap actors, free-range ferrets, and a trio of Elvis-impersonating frat boys, everyone’s secrets begin to unravel. In order to become the family they long to be, Hope, Olivia, and Dylan must face hard truths about themselves and one another on the bumpy road to acceptance, forgiveness, and ultimately, grace.
Crochiere wrote a humor column about family life for Massachusetts newspapers for 13 years. Her collection of those columns titled, The Mother Load, was a finalist for Foreword Reviews’ Book of the Year in humor and the Independent Publishers of New England 2014 Book Award. Crochiere’s essays have appeared in The Boston Globe, Writer’s Digest, and WBUR’s Cognoscenti blog. She lives north of Boston with her husband.
You can learn more about Nancy Crochiere on her website at nancycrochiere.com.
To register for this event, please visit – https://kingstonpubliclibrary.org.

KINGSTON — Massachusetts writers Nicole Asselin, Louisa Clerici, Kate Flora, and Sarah Smith will visit the Faunce School, 16 Green St., on Wednesday, Aug. 23, at 6 p.m. for a Sisters in Crime: Mystery Making Panel.
In this interactive workshop, four mystery authors representing different sub-genres, including cozy/traditional and thriller/suspense, will brainstorm on their feet to create a brand-new mystery using suggestions provided by the audience. This fun, fast-paced, and fascinating improv game offers important insights into mystery writers’ minds and the conventions of the genre.
Asselin, who spent her formative high-school years in Pennsylvania, always identified with her New England roots. Her family is originally from Connecticut as her grandfather introduced her to the Boston Red Sox and her grandmother got her interested in mystery novels. These two loves are combined into her Ballpark Mystery series. Asselin presently works just outside of Boston as a Technical Writer, and lives on the South Shore with her three cats.
Clerici’s stories have been published in literary anthologies and magazines, including Carolina Woman Magazine, Istanbul Literary Review, and Best New England Crime Stories anthologies 2016, 2015, and 2012. Her latest publication is Capers, Crooks, & Kitchens, a Fest of Mystery and Magic, a collection of her stories paired with recipes, published in 2022. Clerici is a writer for The Plymouth Cookbook, a fiction editor of Pink Panther Magazine, and she works as a therapist at Clear Mind Systems in Plymouth.
Flora’s fascination with people’s criminal tendencies began in the Maine Attorney General’s office. As the author of 24-books spanning many genre’s including crime fiction, true crime, memoir, non-fiction, and many short stories. She has been a finalist for the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, and Derringer awards while she won the Public Safety Writers Association award for non-fiction in 2015, and the Maine Literary Award for crime fiction in 2013 and 2015. Flora has taught writing for numerous organizations and institutions as she is a former international president of Sisters in Crime. She divides her time between Massachusetts and Maine.
Smith is an Agatha Award winner and Massachusetts Book Award winner for her 2010 young adult novel, The Other Side of Dark. She has studied at Harvard, where she hung out in the library reading mysteries, and film in London. As the writer of a bestselling adult mystery series set in the Edwardian period, two of those books were named New York Times Notable Books of the Year. The first of these books, The Vanished Child, is being made into a musical and her stand-alone novel, Chasing Shakespeares is being made into a play. Her most recent book is about a multicultural Titanic mystery, Crimes and Survivors, was published in 2020.
Patrons will be able to meet all four authors following the event.
Sisters in Crime is an international organization dedicated to the professional development and advancement of women crime writers. With sixty chapters worldwide, the organization welcomes anyone who loves crime fiction. Their New England chapter hosts in-person and virtual events throughout the year, from craft workshops, to author showcases, to business and marketing advice for authors at every stage of their careers.
To register for this event, please visit – https://kingstonpubliclibrary.org. For more information, you can contact Steven Miller, Reference Librarian at (781) 585-0517 x6272 or at [email protected].