Sharon Farrow

Sharon Farrow is the latest pen name of award winning author Sharon Pisacreta. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Farrow has been a freelance writer since her twenties. Her first novel was released in 1998. Published in mystery, fantasy, and romance, Farrow currently writes The Berry Basket cozy mystery series. She is also one half of the writing team D.E. Ireland, who co-author the Agatha nominated Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins mysteries.

In her former life, Farrow turned her hand to a variety of endeavors from principal investigator on an archaeological site, college history instructor, caterer’s assistant, and dancing in a giant dog costume for a non-profit company (it’s a long story). Although Farrow has lived in Rhode Island, New York and New Jersey, she calls Michigan home, specifically the beautiful coastline of Lake Michigan. Indeed, she is so enamored of the sand dunes, orchards and beaches of western Michigan, she set The Berry Basket mysteries in a town very similar to the one she is lucky to live in.

Farrow’s new novel is Dying For Strawberries.

Recently I asked the author what she was reading. Her reply:

As a longtime fan of Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse mysteries, I was thrilled when Harris launched a new series set in the paranormal world first featured in Sookie’s hometown of Bon Ton, Louisiana. This time Harris has a new setting – Midnight, Texas – and a new cast of characters, each with a gift or secret as alarming as Sookie’s.

Over the summer, I read the first two books in Harris’s Midnight, Texas series: Midnight Crossroad and Day Shift. I’ve just finished Night Shift, her third installment. If you love Sookie and her coterie of vampires, shapeshifters, and shamans, you’ll find the new series a ‘must read’. As a Halloween baby, I’m fond of reading about things that go bump in the night. But even if I had never picked up a paranormal mystery before, I would have been entertained by all three Midnight, Texas books. And take note that her mysteries are never overshadowed by the paranormal elements, but rather are enhanced by them.

One thing Harris does that differs from both her Aurora Teagarden and Sookie Stackhouse books is that this latest series does not feature a main protagonist. Instead a close-knit group of paranormal misfits share the spotlight. And the spotlight reveals a number of fascinating secrets. Best of all, Sookie gets a shout out.

Visit Sharon Farrow's website.

The Page 69 Test: Dying For Strawberries.

--Marshal Zeringue