About the book, Rocket Girl 
- Pages: 330
- Publisher: Polyester Press
- Publication Date: 23 February 2027
- Categories: Historical Mystery/Thriller
A plucky, recently widowed mathematician takes a job with a new NASA-funded research center, but when a fellow employee turns up dead, things add up to murder…
Dallas, 1961. There’s a new president in the White House, a new birth control pill, and a new Russian satellite called Sputnik flying overhead. Everything’s new except Kick Johnson’s options: she’s unexpectedly on her own after three months of marriage to a man she barely knew, her car has been repossessed, and no bank will give her—or any single woman—a loan. When she answers an employment ad at the new Center for Rocket Science Research and lands a job as a math aide, her trajectory points upward—until evidence of a murder is found on the property.
The victim was an engineer who worked on the space program. His death raises questions about the safety of the center and the lengths someone will go to steal the research inside. It also highlights more personal issues like why he was at Kick’s house two days before he was killed. Now her new life involves a fair amount of deception and danger with global stakes—not to mention a surprising secret that hits painfully close to home.
As the space race heats up, Kick has to solve a formula she had no part in writing before her future—and that of the space program she’s learned to love—burns up on reentry.
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About the Author, Diane Vallere 
National bestselling author Diane Vallere writes mysteries where ordinary women stumble into extraordinary situations…and murder is never far behind. From the dawn of the Space Race to contemporary life, her character-driven novels combine memorable heroines with humor and heart.
A past president of Sisters in Crime Worldwide, Diane edited the Agatha Award–winning essay collection Promophobia: Taking the Mystery out of Promoting Crime Fiction. She studied art history at the College of William and Mary and spent decades working as a merchant in the luxury fashion industry before trading fashion accessories for accessories to murder.
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My Thoughts 
I’m a space junkie, and I love a strong female character, so a historical mystery that combines wit, charm, and the space race was practically guaranteed to appeal to me. I devoured Rocket Girl in a single afternoon, completely forgetting to eat or drink in the process.
Kick Johnson is exactly the kind of amateur detective I love. Circumstances propel her into a radically different life: from newlywed to widow in just three months, and from homemaker to gainfully employed at a fictional research center reminiscent of the facilities depicted in Hidden Figures. It’s a whirlwind of change, but the story never feels rushed.
Diane Vallere clearly did her research. She captures the atmosphere of Mercury-era NASA and its associated research facilities while grounding her story in the broader culture of 1961 Texas. Women faced significant barriers to financial independence, while public schools were still struggling through court-ordered desegregation. These realities aren’t merely period window dressing. They’re part of the world that shaped Kick, and they inform both her choices and the story itself.
One thing I particularly appreciated was the distinction between systemic misogyny and individual behavior. While Kick encounters plenty of institutional barriers, most of the men she works with at the rocket center have genuinely good intentions. I especially liked Don Lancer, who gives her a chance professionally, and Bill Arden, who encourages her growing sense of adventure. Honorable mention goes to her brother-in-law, Ned.
The female friendships are equally important, particularly because they’re imperfect. Kick’s relationship with her mother-hen sister, Trudy, is especially compelling. Watching her establish her independence without sacrificing their closeness was one of my favorite aspects of the novel. Connie and Betty, her colleagues at the rocket center, also stood out, as did Mildred, whom I sincerely hope we’ll see more of in future books.
Of course, there’s also a murder to solve, and Vallere delivers excellent plotting with pacing to match. The mystery unfolds naturally alongside Kick’s personal transformation, with neither element overshadowing the other.
Rocket Girl is a thoroughly satisfying historical mystery that feels like a period piece without ever feeling dated. Instead, it has a breezy, retro-futuristic energy that perfectly suits its setting. It’s smart, engaging, and full of characters I’d happily spend more time with. I’m already looking forward to Kick’s next adventure.
Goes well with: Texas BBQ brisket, coleslaw, and a cold Shiner Bock.
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About book one: Sunrise
At Roanne’s funeral reception, the eagerness for answers was thicker than the abundant short ribs set out next to the potato salad and baked beans. The guests had no appetite. They wanted to sink their teeth into why Roanne chose to die the way she did. And they were all looking to me, her closest friend for fifty years.
Things are a little too hot to handle for famous culinary-mystery author, Maddie Montgomery, in her normally quiet neighborhood set in the Houston suburb of Abbott Cove. Especially after her neighbor, Randall Rathburn, has a heart attack and rams his vintage car into a light pole. Though his death is ruled an accident, another of Maddie’s neighbors insists that Randall was murdered, and he implores her to investigate. But Maddie isn’t on board with the half-baked idea, not until she attends the over-the-top funeral where she develops some suspicions of her own. That’s when she decides to take the leap from crime writing to crime solving. After all, she doesn’t exactly want a killer running around her cul-de-sac . . .
Cindy Vincent is the award-winning author of the Buckley and Bogey Cat Detective Capers, and the Tracy Truworth, Apprentice P.I., 1940s Homefront Mysteries. She is also the creator of the Mysteries by Vincent murder mystery party games and the Daisy Diamond Detective Series games for girls. She lives in Houston, Texas with her husband and an assortment of fantastic felines. Cindy is a self-professed “Christmas-a-holic,” and she starts the planning for her ever-expanding, “extreme” Christmas lights display sometime in the early spring.
In 1964, a group of scientists called the Los Alamos Five came close to finishing a nuclear energy project for the United States government when they were abruptly disbanded. Now the granddaughter of one of those five scientists, aerospace engineer Elinor Mitchell, discovers that she has highly sensitive information on the project in her possession–and a target on her back.
About the author, Natalie Walters
Leaping into a series at book two is always a little bit risky. There’s the worry about whether or not the characters and situations will make sense without the back story of the first book.
His promise will cost him far more than he imagined. 
Becky Wade is the 2018 Christy Award Book of the Year winner for True to You. She is a native of California who attended Baylor University, met and married a Texan, and moved to Dallas. She published historical romances for the general market, then put her career on hold for several years to care for her children. When God called her back to writing, Becky knew He meant for her to turn her attention to Christian fiction. Her humorous, heart-pounding contemporary romance novels have won three Christy Awards, the Carol Award, the INSPY Award, and the Inspirational Reader’s Choice Award for Romance. Becky lives in Dallas, Texas with her husband and three children.
In 1917, during the construction of a large reservoir in the Catskill hamlet of Gilboa, New York, a young paleontologist named Winifred Goldring identified fossils from an ancient forest flooded millions of years ago when the earth’s botanical explosion of oxygen opened a path for the evolution of humankind. However, the reservoir water was needed for NYC, and the fossils were buried once again during the flooding of the doomed town.
Peter is a writer, architect, and educator. He is Emeritus Professor at The New School, Parsons School of Design in New York City, where he taught design and wrote on matters of environmental philosophy, design theory, and social practices in the built and natural worlds. Peter comes from a family of writers with an abiding affection for the natural world. His uncle Peter Matthiessen was a three time National Book Award winner, and his brother Jeff Wheelwright is a writer of environmental non-fiction. Educated at Trinity College where he studied painting and sculpture, he went on to receive his Master in Architecture from Princeton University. As an architect, his design work has been widely published in both the national and international press. The Kaleidoscope House, a modernist dollhouse designed in collaboration with artist Laurie Simmons is in the Collection of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art.