Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin': Pamela Barnes Acoustic Mysteries & Giveaway

Sounds of Murder

Pamela Barnes Acoustic Mysteries Book 1

by Patricia Rockwell

Genre: Cozy Mystery

SOUNDS OF MURDER tells a tale of academic intrigue and death. At Grace University, a small southern college, no one in the Psychology Department likes Charlotte Clark, so no one is particularly upset when she is found murdered in the department’s million-dollar computer lab. But because she discovered the body, Associate Professor Pamela Barnes feels obligated to find Charlotte’s killer. When she discovers a recording of the murder that was accidentally produced during Charlotte’s struggle with the killer, she begins her own investigation.

Along the way, Pamela agonizes with her own conscience as she fights her growing fear. She attempts to understand her mysterious Department Chair, keep her curious colleagues informed, placate her protective husband, and avoid antagonizing a local rube detective who belittles her efforts--all while she struggles to make sense of the sounds on the recording.

As she gets deeper and deeper into her analysis—trying to connect what she hears in the recording with sounds from people (and potential killers) around her--she gets closer and closer to the killer. However, the killer is observing Pamela’s efforts and resolving to stop her.

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FM For Murder

Pamela Barnes Acoustic Mysteries Book 2

Who shot the disk jockey while he was on air? No one saw the killer, but many heard the murder on the radio. Local police are mystified and ask Psychology professor and acoustics expert Pamela Barnes to assist them in investigating the crime. Can she determine who shot the deejay just by listening to the radio station’s audio recording of the killing? And how does this crime connect to the impending death of a wealthy carpet manufacturer hundreds of miles away? And the driven behavior of his conscientious son who hides a very important secret? Unknown to Pamela, another thread of this strange mystery is about to unravel. Will she be able to solve it before another victim is claimed?

In FM FOR MURDER, the second in Patricia Rockwell's acoustic mystery series, we follow feisty amateur sleuth Pamela Barnes who doesn’t let academic duties prevent her from fighting crime. And Pamela fights crime with the tools she knows best—sound waves.

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Voice Mail Murder

Pamela Barnes Acoustic Mysteries Book 3

Sex! Knives! Voice Mail Messages!

Who stabbed the philandering football coach in the back? Was it one of the three women who left romantic voice mail messages on the cell phone found next to his body in the motel room?

The police don’t have a clue. None of the coach’s family, friends, or colleagues recognize the voices of the unidentified women--and probable mistresses. Who could they be? This sounds like a case for Pamela Barnes, local Psychology professor, acoustics expert, and sometimes amateur sleuth. Can she identify the three women (and potential murder suspects) from just the sound of their voices on the voice mail?

Who are these mystery women and how did the popular coach manage to conduct affairs with all of them unbeknownst to everyone around him? And how did he keep his trio of lovers from finding out about each other—or did he? It’s a tangled romantic web that ultimately led to murder and Pamela Barnes is determined to figure it out.

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Stump Speech Murder

Pamela Barnes Acoustic Mysteries Book 4

James Grant, a young politician with everything going for him, including the most recent polls, gives a rousing stump speech in a local park. His campaign for mayor against the entrenched incumbent looks unstoppable. That is, until the police discover him standing over his wife’s dead body with the murder weapon in his hands.

It certainly looks as if James is guilty. But psychologist and acoustics expert Pamela Barnes has other ideas–and they include helping this young man prove his innocence and succeed in his bid for mayor.

Can Pamela’s knowledge of sound help her find the real killer and exonerate James? Or will this young politician’s most recent stump speech be his last?

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Murder in the Round

Pamela Barnes Acoustic Mysteries Book 5

A night out with her husband to watch her best friend perform in a local community theater “in-the-round” production surely shouldn’t be cause for amateur sleuth Pamela Barnes to use any of her acoustic detecting skills. But when one of the actresses collapses on stage and dies, Pamela finds herself in the thick of things. The recorder in her purse making an audio copy of the performance for another friend who couldn’t attend, may now prove important when it’s determined that the victim was poisoned. Do the sounds on the recording hold any clues to the identity of the murderer? It looks like Pamela is on the sound trail again, and she––and her pals in the Pyschology Department at Grace University––will not stop until they find the person who committed this murder in the round.

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Patricia Rockwell is the author of the Pamela Barnes acoustic mystery series. This amateur sleuth solves crimes using her knowledge of sound. The series includes SOUNDS OF MURDER, FM FOR MURDER, VOICE MAIL MURDER, STUMP SPEECH MURDER, and MURDER IN THE ROUND. Her new series, Essie Cobb senior sleuth, features a 90-year-old assisted living facility resident who solves mysteries. The books in this series include BINGOED, PAPOOSED, VALENTINED, and GHOSTED. FIRECRACKERED, the fifth in the series, will launch on June 25, 2016.

Dr. Rockwell has spent most of her life teaching. From small liberal arts colleges to large regional research universities--and even a brief stint in a high school, her background in education is extensive. She has taught virtually everything related to Communication--from a fine arts speech-theatre orientation to more recently a social science research approach. Her Bachelors' and Masters' degrees are from the University of Nebraska in Speech and her Ph.D. is from the University of Arizona in Communication. She was on the faculty at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette for thirteen years, retiring in 2007.

Her publications are extensive, with over 20 peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals, several textbooks, and a research book on her major interest area of sarcasm, published by Edwin Mellen Press. In addition to publications, she has presented numerous papers at academic conferences and served for eight years as Editor of the Louisiana Communication Journal. Her research focuses primarily on several areas of communication: deception, sarcasm, and vocal cues.

She is presently living in Aurora, Illinois, with her husband Milt, also a retired educator. The couple has two adult children.

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