Welcome to Degrees of Monstrosity!
Start here for an intro to my publications!
Thank you for visiting and/or subscribing! This is the space where I combine my love for fictional mystery writing and true crime blogging. I have split bookish news and true crime news into two separate newsletters. You have the option to subscribe to one or both, depending on your interests.
My content is not behind a paywall. Paid subscriptions are entirely optional here. If you can or are able, it’s much appreciated, but if you are unable to, then please stick around and enjoy the stories! You can also help out by sharing, liking, and commenting. Every little bit helps!
On the Case
“On the Case: True Crime Recaps” is a weekly newsletter that lands in inboxes on Fridays, and wraps up the stories I post into one email, so you aren’t overwhelmed with my numerous posts throughout the week. My true crime content focuses on female killers. We go through it all: mothers who murder their children, daughters who kill their parents, homicidal wives, and more.
“The Case Files” are long-form pieces I write when a case concludes, and I gather up all the details to tell the full story, along with some criminal psychology analysis. I always write not only with the psychology of the criminal in mind, but with respect to the victims and I do my best to honor them and who they were in life. I feel that is a truly important part of true crime writing — not the sensationalist headlines we see so much, not the graphic details of crime scenes. My focus on criminal psychology is not to justify a crime, but to deduce why it happened and how preventable some murders are. The red flags. The warning behaviours. The mistakes of systems and people.
My interest in criminal psychology is explored in series I write which focus on a specific aspect of female killers, deep-diving into their minds, emotions, motives, and backgrounds while consulting scientific research and what psychology experts say on the topics. The first series is called “Fatal Maternity” and focuses on filicide, the murder of children, in which I explore the various reasons why mothers might kill their kids and the psychology behind it all.
“From the Past” brings back a case from history to once more analyze the woman behind the murder, the victims, and the psychology. It takes the views of the time period in which the murders happened and puts them under the light of current views and research. Sometimes this will be a single post, and sometimes it becomes a series, depending on the case and how many details are available about it.
All of these can be found on the homepage or on the index page for On the Case.
My Books
My second newsletter, “Broken Flashbacks and Whiskey” focuses on my writerly ramblings, my writing life, and my fictional mystery books. I currently have two series on the go, both being self-published as books. “Beyond Dark'“ is a series of novels while “Martha Holmes Mysteries” is in the form of novellas. This newsletter goes out less frequently than “On the Case.” As of now it isn’t on a schedule, but I do want to start some serial fiction projects in the future so that may change. I have some spinoffs within the “Beyond Dark” world I want to write, including a culty short story series, an organized crime series, and a prequel of Alyssa’s backstory I wrote a few years ago.
Beyond Dark
“Beyond Dark,” follows criminal profiler Alyssa Rawkesby, who specializes in female serial killers, as she catches the most dangerous and fatal women while she battles her own demons and gets accustomed to a new partner: rookie profiler Thayer Volikov — much to Alyssa’s disdain.
Book 1, “Belladonna,” follows Alyssa as she tries to find a killer poisoning women in Ottawa’s entertainment industry with an extract of deadly nightshade.
In the sequel, “Gravedigger,” she and Thayer must learn how to get along when they are sent out to a small town in Alberta to find a killer who is burying women alive. Secrets. Rumors. Explosive tension. And this killer is thriving on the mayhem she causes. Can Alyssa and Thayer find her before she destroys more families and murders another woman?
Martha Holmes Mysteries
Martha Holmes is a private investigator who is falling out of love and back into her life after her marriage quickly crumbles — but she has little time to dwell on being single in her 30s, when a man named Thomas Remmy approaches her with the cold case of his missing sister and her best friend. The girls have been goen for ten years, the police have run out of leads, and Thomas is obsessed with finding her. Martha takes it on, and soon realizes that whoever took Chloe and Sydney is still out there — and doesn’t want her learning the truth.
More about me
And if you want to know more about who I am, head on over to my About page. I often describe myself as an old garden witch who writes about murder, true and fictional, but I also love D&D, darts, listening to music of all kinds, reading books, crafts, cross stitching, cooking and baking, and animals. I look forward to getting to know you all and building a community in this space! Thank you for being here!
My Substack is all free with paid subscriptions being optional. I also have a Ko-Fi for one-time donations, and links to where you can buy my books. Any support goes towards creating more content and books and furthering my writing career. All support, financial or not, is appreciated!
