by Robin Yocum
Also, many thanks to Jade Zora Scibilia, my proofreader at Seventh Street. There are few things as painful as dealing with a neurotic author in the days before a book goes to print. She deftly talked me in off the ledge several times.
I also must thank my sweetheart, Melissa, who supports me unfailingly and so often asks, “Shouldn’t you be writing?”
My Ohio River Valley roots continue to be an inspiration for my novels. A Welcome Murder is set in Steubenville, which was once the center of steelmaking in the Ohio Valley. When I was a kid, the highlight of my week was the Saturday-morning trip to Steubenville, where the downtown streets smelled of sulfur from the mills and warm sugar and dough from the bakeries. There were movie theaters, five-and-dimes, crowded sidewalks, and great prosperity. Like the denizens of “the ’ville” and the rest of the Ohio Valley, I hope for a day when that prosperity returns.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robin Yocum is the author of the critically acclaimed novels A Brilliant Death, Favorite Sons, and The Essay. In 2011, Favorite Sons was named USA Book News’ Book of the Year for Mystery/Suspense. It was selected for the Choose to Read Ohio program for 2013–14 and was a featured book of the 2012 Ohioana Book Festival. Yocum is also the author of Dead before Deadline . . . and Other Tales from the Police Beat and Insured for Murder (with Catherine Candisky). He is the president of Yocum Communications, a public relations and marketing firm in Galena, Ohio. He is well known for his work as a crime and investigative reporter with the Columbus Dispatch from 1980 to 1991, during which time he earned more than thirty local, state, and national journalism awards in categories ranging from investigative reporting to feature writing.