Kathleen Pellegrino Book Launch
Springfield resident Kathleen Pellegrino will launch her second murder mystery novel, Mary Lou, Oh What Did She Do? on Saturday, November 3 at 1:00 pm at the Irish Cultural Center of Western New England, 429 Morgan Road, West Springfield, MA. The event includes book signings, door prizes and a meet & greet with the author herself. Free and open to the public.
The crime novel is the second in a series set in the imaginary, upscale town of West Side in Western Massachusetts. This book tells of the mysterious death of Leana Lonergan, the wealthy, beautiful, engaging, and brilliant wife of Gar Lonergan, and the efforts of West Side Police Captain Beau Beauregard to solve the questionable car crash that took her life.
Pellegrino is a well-known figure in the region, with her varied career including stints as Executive Director of the Springfield Parking Authority, as a member of the Springfield Police Commission, and for many years as Professor at Westfield State University, where she also served as Chair of the Department of Economics and Management. She also holds an MBA and a CPA and worked independently for many years in the field of taxation.
Now retired four times, Pellegrino has returned to an early love – writing mysteries. Growing up as Kathleen Bready from an Irish family rooted in Counties Roscommon and Cork, she remembers always being hooked on books featuring murder and mystery plots.
“My love affair with plots, murder, mystery, spies and, in general, with crime novels began at an early age when I would raid my father’s suitcase after his return from each of his frequent business trips. There lay one, two and sometimes three paperbacks,” Pellegrino recalled.
And I read and read – I probably have read 2,000 crime novels since then,” she added.
Pellegrino has also penned Sunnyside Road (Paradise Dissembling) and Brothers of Another Mother and is working on a fourth in the series.
She lives in the Atwater section of Springfield with her husband Joe and their dog, Othello.