Jennifer K. Breedlove

Jennifer has been writing stories since she was in preschool, when she delighted in crafting tales of magic and adventure; she wrote and illustrated them with her 64-box of Crayolas, stapled the pages together, and waited for fame and riches to come calling. (They did not.) When her parents insisted that she pursue a career more secure than fiction writing, she decided to be a musician instead.

This was not what her parents had in mind when they said “more secure,” but they were wonderfully supportive nonetheless.

Jennifer holds degrees in piano, choral conducting, and theology; she is on the music faculty at Loyola University in Chicago and serves as an assistant conductor for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chorus. Jennifer has worked as a church musician, educator, and editor and is a prolific composer of choral music; her compositions, as well as her nonfiction books and articles, are available through several major publishers. A frequent visitor to Downeast Maine since childhood, she has an enduring affection for the wild beauty of the coastal islands and the warmth of the people who make their homes there. Her debut novel, Murder Will Out, won the Minotaur Books/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Award, and was also a finalist for the Killer Nashville Claymore award.

She lives in the western suburbs of Chicago with her husband, two dogs, and two kids currently attending college. Demonstrating once again the cliché about apples and trees, her son is a music major, and her daughter plans to be a writer.