Lea Kovacsiss
Keri Kovacsiss
As the temperatures drop, avid readers are curling up on the couch and becoming entranced with new novels. Readers from all over the world are diving deep into a world created in a novel by Owens Community College adjunct faculty member Keri Kovacsiss and her sister Lea titled Just Beneath the Surface.
The sisters will discuss the book on the Toledo-area Campus in College Hall 100 at 11 a.m. Thursday, November 9.
Just Beneath the Surface is a cozy mystery novel. The Culpepper sisters are busy readying their shop for the upcoming All Hallows’ Eve Parade and Pageant, honoring five accused and hanged witches in the 1600’s, when a brutal murder takes place in the town square. This horrific crime inflames town suspicion and threatens to uncover Culpepper family secrets bubbling just beneath the surface.
Keri and Lea are from East Canton, Ohio. Keri has lived in the Toledo area since 2011 and has been an adjunct faculty member since Fall 2013. Lea, the executive coordinator of the Members’ Assistance Team for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, resides in Columbus.
As stresses from jobs began to build, Keri looked for a way to alleviate stress and started getting lost in mysteries on the Hallmark Channel. That led her to reading her first cozy mystery book and talking to Lea about the stories. “We were both kind of mulling over the idea of ‘what is we wrote one of those?’ and started emailing ideas back and forth. Just Beneath the Surface was born,” Kovacsiss said.
The sisters have loved writing their whole lives. Lea would draft short stories and plays that the sisters and cousins would perform for their family. Keri kept a journal and wrote countless short stories. “I knew I would write a book someday, but for a long time it was ‘one day’ until I finally decided to start and make my dream a reality,” Keri said.
The sisters are extremely proud of the story itself and the world they created. “I am very proud that we were able to do something fun together as adults that most siblings do not have the opportunity to do,” said Kovacsiss.
Just Beneath the Surface is the sisters’ first book together and their first fiction book. They hope to release the second book in their cozy mystery series, Seven Hills Mysteries, next summer.
Book readers around the world have given Just Beneath the Surface rave reviews on Amazon. “I spent every spare moment of the day reading this book and stayed up a little late to finish this book in one day,” wrote one Kindle reader. Another wrote “the book was incredible, from the imagery of a small town preparing for fall, to the sudden need for comfort treats, it genuinely felt like an escape from reality.”
Just Beneath the Surface is available on Amazon now.