About
Tracey S. Phillips is the author of Best Kept Secrets published by Crooked Lane Books. The manuscript won a Hugh Holton award in 2018, and the unagented debut was released in 2019. She is also the founder of Blackbird Writers, a community of mystery writers who flock together.
At her first Bouchercon, the dream of being a panelist was realized when she sat with other debut authors discussing Unusual Ways to Kill, in fiction, of course. In March 2020, she was a panelist at the first virtual Murder and Mayhem con.
Tracey didn’t always want to write. At Berklee College of Music she majored in music production and engineering, then owned a recording studio in Boulder Colorado. As a working-from-home mom, she fantasized for years about vacations alone with her computer. She teaches piano lessons and lives in Wisconsin with her husband and the 2 small dogs who rule their lives.
Featured Work
Best Kept Secrets
Morgan Jewell and Fay Ramsey are enjoying their last summer together before college. Fay is shy, with a controlling mother, and Morgan is the perfect, wild, loud-mouthed yang to Fay's yin. But when Fay is found dead, Morgan's entire world crumbles.
Years later, Morgan is still haunted by the abrupt end to her best friend's life. She knew Fay held a secret in those final days, but Morgan, now a homicide detective, has failed to make a picture out of the crooked puzzle pieces she left behind. Nothing makes sense. The leads have run dry. Until she's called to the scene of a murder: a woman whose body is left mangled, too similar to Fay's to ignore.
Could it be? Morgan vowed to do right by Fay. This is the case she's been waiting for to set her back on the killer's trail. But the closer she gets, the harder it forces her to confront the memories of herself and her best friend. What was her secret? What got her killed? Maybe Morgan didn't know her at all.
Other Works
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Elements of Submission
2021
Awards and Recognition
- Best Kept Secrets won a 2018 Hugh Holton Award from Mystery Writers Assoc. Of America
