Patrice McDonough

I'm a Jersey girl, splitting my time between the Garden State and Florida, which should have improved my golf game but hasn't! I spend my leisure time traveling, sailing, watching classic movies, begging my golf ball to land on the fairway, and reading the histories, mysteries, and historical novels piled high on my night table. 

​

 

I was lucky to grow up in a history-loving family in a tiny town that is home to the “bridge that saved a nation.” (Yes indeed: but for the crossing at River Edge, NJ, George Washington—and the Revolution— might have been toast back in 1776.) My older brother Tom and I were the nutty kids who rode our bicycles to the Von Steuben House by the bridge, spending hours—and a quarter—looking at the cool old stuff.

 

I also was lucky to grow up in a reading family. The mystery bug bit me early, and I read through my brother’s Hardy Boys books before moving on to Agatha Christie. History and mystery…I guess writing historical suspense was in the stars. My most prized literary possession, though, isn't a first edition of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. It's a copy of Moby Dick signed "Herman Melville in the handwriting of Joseph Heller." Strange but true.

 

I have a master’s degree in history from Rutgers University/NJIT, taught history for many years at Immaculate Heart Academy in Washington Township, NJ, a college preparatory high school for girls, and was named an Outstanding Educator by the Archdiocese of Newark. I'm a member of the Historical Writers of America, the Mystery Writers of America, and the Historical Novel Society.