KORETSKY, J. Lea

(Judy Lea Koretsky)

PERSONAL: Female.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Regent Press, 6020-A Adeline, Oakland, CA 94608.

CAREER: Child-abuse investigator, criminologist, and novelist. Collects evidence for behavioral and motivational studies and provides expert testimony.

WRITINGS:

(As Judy Lea Koretsky) Leading the Recovery: Group Sessions with Adult Children of Alcoholics, Learning Publications (Holmes Beach, FL), 1990.

Wall of Darkness (mystery novel), Regent Press (Oakland, CA), 2002.

The Eternity Look (mystery novel), Regent Press (Oakland, CA), 2003.

Domino (mystery novel), Regent Press (Oakland, CA), 2004.

The Sweat Box (mystery novel), Regent Press (Oakland, CA), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: A well-regarded child-abuse investigator, J. Lea Koretsky has used her detective skills to launch a second career as a successful mystery writer. In Wall of Darkness journalist Avia Haddom struggles to expose a serial killer whose victims are young boys, while also untangling the complicated nature of sovereignty on the Hawaiian islands. Unfortunately, according to Library Journal reviewer Rex E. Klett the two themes do not mesh well, resulting in a story suffering from "a lack of transition, detail, depth, and explanation."

Koretsky's second effort, The Eternity Look, was more successful, in Klett's opinion. This book introduces U.S. Marshal Dalton Keys, a gay, African-American detective who is investigating a series of murders involving a strange vendetta against World War II naval veterans. This time, Klett commended Koretsky for "a convincing plot, an attractive protagonist, and winning prose." Domino, Koretsky's third novel, finds Dalton transferred to the Arizona-California border, where his good friend and fellow cop Isaiah DuBois has been killed. Using DuBois's notes, Dalton eventually uncover the drug-smuggling ring behind a series of truck hijackings. Klett praised Koretsky for her "exhaustive descriptions of locale and detailed analysis of case-related theories." The Sweat Box, the third "Dalton" mystery, finds the marshal back in San Bernardino investigating another smuggling ring; this time illegal immigrants are smuggled over the border, apparently to break in wild horses. The trail leads to a Texas rancher and some California businessmen while also illuminating the difficult lives of migrant farm families.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Library Journal, January, 2003, Rex E. Klett, review of Wall of Darkness, p. 163; January, 2004, Rex E. Klett, review of The Eternity Look, p. 164; November 1, 2004, Rex E. Klett, review of Domino, p. 60.