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Alice Ott mystery author brings Raging Granny sleuth out of retirement
Popular author, Dusty J. Miller, has decided that a worldwide pandemic and the current movement to end racial injustice was no time for her feisty Raging Granny sleuth, Alice Ott, to go into retirement.
Miller is a Florida resident who also lives part-time in Massachusetts. She has written four books in the Alice Ott mystery series, beginning in 2012 with Danger in the Air, followed in 2014 with Danger at the Gates, 2017 Danger Under Ground and 2019 Danger in the House, which earned a four-star rating from bookclubonline.com – the club’s highest ranking. Danger in the House also received a very positive review from Publisher’s Weekly in January 2020.
Alice Ott is an elderly sleuth who grew out of Miller’s real-life friendships with social justice activist Frances Crowe and her favorite troublemakers, the Raging Grannies. Crowe, now deceased, lives on in Miller’s Alice Ott character.
“As I first began to create Alice Ott, I felt like I really knew her,” Miller said. “It was my good fortune to have superb role models for this feisty elder.”
Alice Ott Mystery Series
The Alice Ott mystery series was transformed into Reader’s Theater productions, gaining fans up and down the East Coast of the United States. But when Crowe passed in August 2019 at the age of 100, Miller announced the fourth Alice Ott book would end the series. She believed the character had run her course. Miller began developing another mystery novel that was to take place in Florida. But Alice Ott’s fans wanted more, and Dusty realized that current events dictated the series must go on.
The series began catching on among Raging Grannies gaggles in the U.S. and Canada, and then COVID-19 erupted around the globe in early 2020, causing Miller to rethink her strategy.
“Also,” she says, “I can hold Frances Crowe and other friends close to my heart by continuing to write stories about Alice Ott! Truth be told, I realized I would miss Alice too much if I ended the mystery series.”
So, Miller is hard at work on the fifth Alice Ott book. “And we’re on the riskiest adventure yet,” she teases.
Miller has published five nonfiction books generated by her work as a trauma and addiction specialist. Best seller, Women Who Hurt Themselves, launched her writing career in mainstream publishing. Although she is grateful for the success of her nonfiction books, Miller’s passion is in mystery writing.
Miller expects to publish her fifth book in the Alice Ott series in 2021. Watch her website for announcements.