Northbrook native's book series centers on Chicago socialite

It's no mystery what author Catherine O'Connell will be doing at The Book Bin in Northbrook (today) April 23 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

O'Connell, who grew up in Northbrook, will be signing copies of her high society mysteries published by Harper Collins featuring widowed Chicago socialite and amateur sleuth Pauline Cook.

"The Book Bin is a long time independent and I love getting people to visit independent bookstores," O'Connell said.

O'Connell is celebrating last month's paperback publication of Well Read And Dead, the second in her series of high society mysteries which began with Well Bred And Dead in 2007.

"I wanted to create someone who stands out in a crowd," said O'Connell. To accomplish that, O'Connell made Pauline Cook a 5 foot, 10 inch tall, vivacious redhead in her 50s.

"She is a little bit of a difficult character but sympathetic," said O'Connell. "When Pauline wants to get to the bottom of something, she does. She is a blue-blood from the East Coast but she marries a Midwesterner. In the first book Pauline reflects upon the time she lived in Lake Forest with her husband. She also has a house in Lake Geneva and a co-op apartment on East Lake Shore Drive in the city."

In Well Read And Dead, Pauline returns from Europe post Sept. 11, 2001, to face major financial set-backs and discover her co-op isn't finished being remodeled so she moves into the Drake Hotel. When the wife of an Astor Street millionaire goes missing, she accepts the challenge of a huge reward to conduct a search which takes her from Chicago to a book club in Oak Park to Aspen to Southeast Asia.

On April 30, O'Connell will also do a talk and a signing at 7 p.m. at The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago.

O'Connell, who is working on Better Wed Than Dead, grew up reading the Northbrook Star and wanting to be a writer.

"I loved growing up in Northbrook. It is always home. My father still lives in Northbrook. I just love driving down the tree-lined streets in the spring and summer."

A graduate of Glenbrook North High School, O'Connell majored in journalism at the University of Colorado. She has been a ski bum in Aspen and a backpacker in Europe, as well as a hotel maid, a bar manager, a sommelier, a floor runner at the Chicago Board of Trade and a sales executive.

"I am a bohemian, sort of. I think that is just the writer's nature," she said.

Her first book, published in 1993, was "Skins," a murder mystery set in the New York City fur world. Although out-of-print, it is available on Amazon.com and still on shelves in North Shore libraries.

"At the time I made friends with a man named David Grafton. He wrote biographies of wealthy women and he took me under his wing," she said.

In 1993, O'Connell was scheduled to do a talk at the University Club in Chicago with Grafton and socialite-author Sugar Rautbord when she called Grafton's home to learn his body had just been discovered.

"It was ruled a natural cause but there were still people who thought something strange had happened because David was found face down on his bed with his arms crossed underneath him. Then they found he had stolen someone's identity 40 years prior for reasons we never did figure out. He wasn't a criminal. I think he just didn't like who he was."

In 2005, O'Connell wrote a murder mystery that incorporated that relationship and those unusual circumstances.

"I just took a lot of what I had seen when I was hanging around with him and incorporated that into characters in the book," she said. "My agent called me and said, 'Can you make this a series?' And I said, 'I'm so happy to be published again I can do anything you want.' "

Author Catherine O'Connell

Book signing 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 23 at The Book Bin, 1151 Church St., Northbrook. www.bookbin.booksense.com, www.catherineoconnell.net or (847) 498-4999.

Northbrook native's book series centers on Chicago socialite

It's no mystery what author Catherine O'Connell will be doing at The Book Bin in Northbrook (today) April 23 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

O'Connell, who grew up in Northbrook, will be signing copies of her high society mysteries published by Harper Collins featuring widowed Chicago socialite and amateur sleuth Pauline Cook.

"The Book Bin is a long time independent and I love getting people to visit independent bookstores," O'Connell said.

O'Connell is celebrating last month's paperback publication of Well Read And Dead, the second in her series of high society mysteries which began with Well Bred And Dead in 2007.

"I wanted to create someone who stands out in a crowd," said O'Connell. To accomplish that, O'Connell made Pauline Cook a 5 foot, 10 inch tall, vivacious redhead in her 50s.

"She is a little bit of a difficult character but sympathetic," said O'Connell. "When Pauline wants to get to the bottom of something, she does. She is a blue-blood from the East Coast but she marries a Midwesterner. In the first book Pauline reflects upon the time she lived in Lake Forest with her husband. She also has a house in Lake Geneva and a co-op apartment on East Lake Shore Drive in the city."

In Well Read And Dead, Pauline returns from Europe post Sept. 11, 2001, to face major financial set-backs and discover her co-op isn't finished being remodeled so she moves into the Drake Hotel. When the wife of an Astor Street millionaire goes missing, she accepts the challenge of a huge reward to conduct a search which takes her from Chicago to a book club in Oak Park to Aspen to Southeast Asia.

On April 30, O'Connell will also do a talk and a signing at 7 p.m. at The Book Cellar, 4736 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago.

O'Connell, who is working on Better Wed Than Dead, grew up reading the Northbrook Star and wanting to be a writer.

"I loved growing up in Northbrook. It is always home. My father still lives in Northbrook. I just love driving down the tree-lined streets in the spring and summer."

A graduate of Glenbrook North High School, O'Connell majored in journalism at the University of Colorado. She has been a ski bum in Aspen and a backpacker in Europe, as well as a hotel maid, a bar manager, a sommelier, a floor runner at the Chicago Board of Trade and a sales executive.

"I am a bohemian, sort of. I think that is just the writer's nature," she said.

Her first book, published in 1993, was "Skins," a murder mystery set in the New York City fur world. Although out-of-print, it is available on Amazon.com and still on shelves in North Shore libraries.

"At the time I made friends with a man named David Grafton. He wrote biographies of wealthy women and he took me under his wing," she said.

In 1993, O'Connell was scheduled to do a talk at the University Club in Chicago with Grafton and socialite-author Sugar Rautbord when she called Grafton's home to learn his body had just been discovered.

"It was ruled a natural cause but there were still people who thought something strange had happened because David was found face down on his bed with his arms crossed underneath him. Then they found he had stolen someone's identity 40 years prior for reasons we never did figure out. He wasn't a criminal. I think he just didn't like who he was."

In 2005, O'Connell wrote a murder mystery that incorporated that relationship and those unusual circumstances.

"I just took a lot of what I had seen when I was hanging around with him and incorporated that into characters in the book," she said. "My agent called me and said, 'Can you make this a series?' And I said, 'I'm so happy to be published again I can do anything you want.' "

Author Catherine O'Connell

Book signing 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. April 23 at The Book Bin, 1151 Church St., Northbrook. www.bookbin.booksense.com, www.catherineoconnell.net or (847) 498-4999.