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STEEL CITY
Mysteries

When reality has “versions” who do you trust?

Psychological suspense novels set in Pittsburgh’s 1990s arts world, where the wrong woman always ends up in the crosshairs, and the real mystery is who gets believed. For readers who love an underdog.

The Series so far

Steel City Burn cover

Prequel

Steel City Burn

She has a PR day job, a journalism degree she’s not using, and one shot at landing a dream job as a critic for the city’s hottest alt-newsweekly. What she gets instead is a disaster of a play, a theater full of people with knives out for each other, and a target on her back. Start here. Before everything goes wrong.

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Steel City Critic cover

Book One

The Critic

He stole her column. Then someone poisoned him. She didn’t do it — she’s pretty sure — but her mental health history has a way of making her doubt herself. And if she can’t trust her own memory, how is she supposed to prove her innocence?

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Praise for The Critic

“While investigating a murder to keep the heat off herself, you’ll be tossed into Jessica’s world of chaos and action in THE CRITIC. Kirchner blends Pittsburgh’s gritty theater backdrop, red herrings galore, nonstop 90s nostalgia in this entertaining and clever thriller. The first in a series spotlighting different characters from the scene, you’ll be waiting for the next with bated breath. A bonafide win.”

—Jaime Lynn Hendricks, bestselling author of Their Double Lives

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Who Am I To Write About Rebellious Women?

I’ve been a journalist, a story coach, an award-winning screenwriter, and even an on-air host for the Home Shopping Network. My life and work as an expat in Asia became the basis of two memoirs. And I was once simultaneously the religion editor for an LGBTQIA+ paper, the dating columnist for an alt newsweekly, and the bridal editor for a society rag.

My writing has appeared in The Washington Post, Salon, and The Rumpus among numerous other outlets.

I’m also a proud grandma, longtime yoga teacher, and avid garden lady, living in Florida with my favorite husband and our best boy, Hartley.

I’ve never believed the most powerful person in the room is the noisiest, but the one who’s paying attention.

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