Jodé is a life long resident of Poughkeepsie, New York, which serves as the setting for her crime fiction. In her writing, she draws upon her many years as an attorney to capture the tensions that arise when a small community is rocked by tragedy.
Author of the best-selling SEATS: NEW YORK Theatre guidebooks, her debut thriller, “The Midnight Call” won the 2021 Independent Press Award for Legal Thriller, the 2020 Bronze IPPY Award, the 2020 American Fiction Award for Legal Thriller, was a nominee for the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, a 2021 finalist for the Book Excellence Awards, was short-listed for the 2019 Clue Award, and received the First Place Blue Ribbon as “Best Police Procedural” by Chantireviews.com.
Her second thriller, “Hooker Avenue” won the 2022 Independent Press Award for Crime Fiction and was a Finalist for the 2022 American Fiction Award and is a Finalist for the 2022 Clue Award.
Jode’s third installment of “The Queen City Crimes” series, “The Empty Kayak,” will be released in May 2023.
Jode received her BA and JD from Syracuse University, and she obtained her MA in English Literature from Eastern Michigan University.
She has developed “The Writer’s Law School,” which is an educational program designed to inform writers and artists about protecting their artistic rights. And she is a book reviewer for Booktrib.com and the New York Journal of Books.
Presently, she also co-hosts and co-produces Backstage with the Bardavon Podcast, which invites the listener backstage for intimate conversations with musicians and performers appearing at the Bardavon 1869 Opera House in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. and UPAC in Kingston, NY. The podcast is available on Itunes, Spotify, iHeart Media, and Google.
Jode is a member of The Authors Guild, New York State Bar Association, Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, Sisters In Crime, Romance Writers of America, and Women Fiction Writers Association.
Her hobbies include: golf, watercolor painting, photography, baking, cinema, gardening, travel, and, of course, reading.
Books
About The Empty Kayak
For Detective Ebony Jones, crime is always personal. But this time, it strikes too close to home.
A pop-up thunderstorm marched its way across the Hudson River, ambushing a young couple’s kayaking trip. The woman miraculously made it back to shore, but her fiancé remains missing. Ebony and her partner are the first responders who rush to the river to assist in rescuing the capsized boater.
The victim’s identity shocks Ebony to the core. Kyle Emory, the ex-boyfriend of her estranged best friend, attorney Jessie Martin, is the man who never made it out of the water. The accident ignites a firestorm between the two friends, pitting them against each other in a race to discover whether Kyle survived or whether he met his untimely demise. Under pressure from the chief and the DA, Ebony needs to solve the mystery, while Jessie seeks justice for the sake of the daughter she shares with Kyle.
The investigation leads them through the dark worlds of social media, online sports betting, and extreme sports. Along the way, they uncover lies and betrayals, and gather a list of dangerous suspects who are all linked to the accident survivor, Kyle’s mysterious fiancée. Even more, the discovery that Kyle possessed his own life-shattering secrets has trapped Ebony between her career and her lifelong friendship with Jessie. Yet neither Ebony nor Jessie will stop until they unearth the truth. Even if it destroys their friendship and their lives.
But the evidence is as murky as the secretive Hudson River. Only the river knows whether Kyle’s untimely death was an accident, a suicide, or something more sinister.