CLELAND, Jane K.

PERSONAL:

Married (husband a musician). Education: University of Denver, B.A.; Babson College, M.B.A. Hobbies and other interests: Cooking, gardening, snorkeling.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY. E-mail—info@janecleland.net; jane@jkcleland.com.

CAREER:

Writer. Has also worked as a curriculum developer, corporate trainer, and facilitator, specializing in management, marketing, and business communications.

WRITINGS:

Putting First What Matters Most: Proven Strategies for Success in Work and in Life (nonfiction), New American Library (New York, NY), 2001.

Business Writing for Results: How to Create a Sense of Urgency and Increase Response to All of Your Business Communications (nonfiction), McGrawHill (New York, NY), 2003.

Consigned to Death (novel), Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2006.

Also author of How to Create High-Impact Newsletters and How to Create High-Impact Design. Also author of facilitator guides and training programs for organizations and businesses.

ADAPTATIONS:

Putting First What Matters Most has been adapted as a four-volume CD set.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jane K. Cleland already had a successful career as a curriculum developer and corporate trainer for such high-profile clients as Pepsi, American Express, and the Pfizer pharmaceutical company. After publishing several business-related titles such as Putting First What Matters Most: Proven Strategies for Success in Work and in Life and Business Writing for Results: How to Create a Sense of Urgency and Increase Response to All of Your Business Communications, she published her first mystery novel, Consigned to Death. The protagonist is Josie Prescott, who is shunned by her professional colleagues in New York City after she foils a price-fixing scheme at an auction house. Josie moves to New Hampshire, where she struggles to establish a new career as an antiques appraiser. It looks as if a great opportunity has come her way when she is entrusted with the sale of a house full of valuable old items, but the owner of the place is found stabbed, and Josie's fingerprints are inexplicably on the murder weapon. Stolen paintings are then found in her warehouse, further complicating the case against her. Josie's budding romance with the police chief, Ty Alvarez, is disrupted by the cloud of suspicion that hangs over her, giving Josie further motivation to clear her own name. A Kirkus Reviews writer called Consigned to Death an "erudite debut." Barbara Bibel, reviewing the mystery for Booklist, found the setting in the world of high-priced antiques an interesting one, and described Josie as "a nice addition" to the world of female detective characters.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, February 15, 2006, Barbara Bibel, review of Consigned to Death, p. 49.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2005, review of Consigned to Death, p. 1301.

ONLINE

Official Web site of Author Jane K. Cleland,http://www.janecleland.net (July 13, 2006).*