Murder Comes in Threes

For readers who love both mysteries and true crime, this book is inspired by the extensive research Marcia Mitchell conducted in her award-winning nonfiction about real-life spies and the agents who have tracked them—across continents and generations.

While the saucy, daring Maggie Sachet is fictional, how she handles her cases has been vetted by retired FBI agents, who ensure that the action is realistic. Maggie's cranky, sometimes socially tone-deaf boss provides the opportunity to explore contemporary gender politics in an intense and often dangerous setting. Meanwhile, her offbeat relationships with friends, family, and her beloved cat allow us to cheer her on as she solves cases and catches bad guys. An extra bonus comes in the form of actual gourmet recipes that Maggie somehow fits into her busy schedule—whether she's dining alone or with special guests. Just as the story's case is legitimate according to the FBI, these elegant meals are legitimate according to the author, herself a true foodie.

In this pilot book of the Maggie Sachet Mystery Series, our heroine is tasked with rubber-stamping an “unsolvable, unconnected” set of cold murder cases. But as conflicting clues start to “connect,” she can't ignore the intrigue, even when the arrows start aiming at her.

Marcia Mitchell served as Secretary of Labor for the State of South Dakota, a senior manager for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Associate Director of The American Film Institute; she also has written and published nonfiction in various genres throughout her career. Thomas Mitchell was an FBI agent for seventeen years, specializing in intelligence and counterintelligence work, before becoming Vice President for Government Affairs for the Georgia-Pacific Corporation. The couple was inspired to investigate and write nonfiction in the counterespionage genre when Tom first told Marcia his account of working on the Judith Coplon case in the 1940s and 50s. They also collaborated on the 2008 volume The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War: Katharine Gun and the Secret Plot to Sanction the Iraq Invasion—which inspired the 2019 feature-length film Official Secrets starring Keira Knightley.

After Tom’s death in 2010, Marcia continued her research and writing; their collaborative spy projects inspired a fictional series—featuring Maggie Sachet, a quirky FBI agent whose globe-trotting adventures to solve murders were vetted by real FBI agents for accuracy. Marcia is also the author of another upcoming novel, Beyond the Bridge, along with several previously published works of nonfiction, including Cosmetics from the Kitchen, Management Strategies for Women, and Raindance to Research.