Kathryn Lasky discusses Mortal Radiance

Mortal Radiance is Kathryn Lasky’s second mystery featuring Georgia O’Keeffe. Barbara Peters, owner of The Poisoned Pen, welcomed her to discuss her latest book and her writing. There are signed copies of Mortal Radiance available in the Webstore. https://bit.ly/3XNePKY.

Here’s the summary of Mortal Radiance.

Painter and amateur sleuth Georgia O’Keeffe investigates a tragic death when she returns to Taos in the second instalment of this twisty historical mystery set in the 1930s by multi award-winning author Kathryn Lasky.

“Step aside Miss Marple, Eugenia Potter, and Kinsey Millhone – Georgia O’Keeffe is the new sleuth in town!” Award-winning author Katherine Hall Page

New Mexico, 1935. Painter Georgia O’Keeffe is at her friend Mabel Dodge Luhan’s home, Los Gallos, a house inhabited by a colorful range of artists, authors and society figures, to attend the memorial service of the renowned writer D.H. Lawrence.

Georgia has been commissioned to design the stained-glass windows for the small memorial chapel in Lawrence’s honor. But when she checks to see how the light comes through the glass, another much more horrible sight awaits her: beloved Navajo potter Flora Namingha is dead, her face smashed in with a stone . . .

With Flora’s fianc� locked up as the obvious suspect and the local police negligent in its investigation, it seems like no one other than Georgia is capable of solving the murder and making sure justice is done.

When Georgia’s lover Sheriff Ryan McCaffrey comes to town unannounced, things get more complicated, and Georgia suddenly finds herself in a complex tangle of revenge, international espionage, Nazis and thugs that will require all her artistic sensibilities and amateur sleuthing skills to unravel!

Kathryn Lasky brings Georgia O’Keeffe, considered one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century, to vivid life, along with her set of eccentric famous friends. Lovers of twisty historical mysteries with authentic characters, stunning settings and strong female amateur sleuths are in for a treat!


Kathryn Lasky is the author of over one hundred books for children and young adults, including the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, which has more than eight million copies in print, and was turned into a major motion picture, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Her books have received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and a Washington Post-Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award. She has twice won the National Jewish Book award. Her work has been translated into 19 languages worldwide. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, MA.


Enjoy the discussion with Kathryn Lasky.