‘And Then There Was One’: Prof's first novel published

One remote island, one guilty secret, one motive for murder. It’s only a matter of time before Lyla drowns.

Education professor Dr. Michele Castleman has always loved a good mystery, so she wrote one of her own.

After reigniting her passion for creative writing, Michele has published And Then There Was One, an Agatha Christie-esque psychological thriller released on June 11 by Bold Strokes Books. In a stroke of unplanned irony, the book was released on the third anniversary of the passing of Michele’s father, who was her strong supporter and king of finding typos when she wrote the first draft in 2018.

The journey from first draft to publication was complicated. After editing, she felt the book was ready to submit to publishers but that process wasn’t going so well. “I had an agent representing me for two years with no nibbles,” the first-time author said. “So I wrote a few other things and then we parted ways. I was a free agent again.”

Last summer, Michele resubmitted her book plus another manuscript and it caught the attention of editors at Bold Strokes Books. According to its website, Bold Strokes Books is a midsized independent publisher headquartered in Cambridge, New York that offers a diverse collection of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer general and genre fiction.

Since And Then There Was One was resubmitted, it’s been a crazy flurry of activity through cover design, two rounds of editing and proofreading – “the most painful part,” according to Michele.

Now that the book is out there in the world, it’s a 20-year dream come true for Michele. “This opens up opportunities to have larger conversations,” she says. “I wrote it for people out there that I don’t know, but now, people I know are reading it. That’s awesome … and a little nerve-racking.”

One such opportunity: Novel #2, which Michele has already begun writing. It’s not a sequel, per se, but there will be a couple of overlapping characters in Stolen Hearts, the working title for the second book.

Here’s the mystifying plot for And Then There Was One:

“Six weeks after Lyla Smith dragged her sister’s dead body onto the Lake Erie shore, she escapes her small Ohio town to work as a nanny for distant relatives on their remote private island. Plagued by strange memories and drowning in the guilt she tried to leave behind, Lyla struggles to break up with her boyfriend and forget her feelings for her sister’s girlfriend. Especially now that she has met another girl on the island who seems to be flirting with her.

Lyla’s first family dinner is a tense affair, and mid-argument the matriarch, Crystal Payne, takes a sip from her wineglass and dies. Suddenly everyone is a suspect. From rival interests in Crystal’s corporation to family secrets that won’t stay hidden, there are too many people with a motive for murder, and Lyla’s trapped with an unknown killer.

The only way to save herself is to be free of the secrets that drag her down. But when the killer strikes again, it’s only a matter of time before Lyla drowns"
 
Book release party
And Then There Was One is currently available on the Bold Strokes Books website and Amazon. But if you don’t want to wait for shipping, you can meet the author at her book release party on Sunday, July 27, at 10 a.m. at Pan Yan Bookstore in downtown Tiffin.