2015 was an exciting year for author Richard Behrens. He was on an experimental drug that was keeping his cancer at bay, while at the same time giving him reasonable health. He had, for the first time in several years, enough energy to complete his first Lizzie Borden Girl Detective novel, The Minuscule Monk. Richard’s wife Anna worked alongside him to edit the novel and also to produce simple illustrations to illuminate each chapter title page. Richard previously worked with his friend Stefani Koorey of Pear Tree Press, who published a collection of his Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective short stories in 2010, but now Richard wanted to published his own book.
So, just like that, Nine Muses Books was born. Richard loved the reference to the Greek muses, who are said to have inspired artists, musicians and writers alike. It was fitting for Richard, who himself produced not only great writing of both fiction and non-fiction, but had been at various stages of his life a musician, actor, director, playwright and podcaster. For Nine Muses Books, Richard chose a whimsical logo, the Victorian-era man on a penny-farthing bicycle that signified both the time period and the wry nature of his Lizzie Borden Girl Detective fiction.
Richard was so very pleased to have published The Minuscule Monk in 2015. He then began work on several novel-length stories, as well as “The Audible Amnesiac,” another short story. Richard was working to publish this story in a second Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective short story collection, when his health deteriorated in late 2016. Sadly, Richard passed away in April 2017, before he could publish another book.
With the invaluable assistance of Stefani Koorey, Richard’s wife Anna published The Audible Amnesiac in 2018, as well as Garden Bay Stories, a collection of short stories centered around Richard’s childhood in Queens. A third book, Of Moons and Monoliths, a collection of Richard’s non-fiction writing, was also published by Nine Muses Books. In 2020, Nine Muses Books published a revised version of Pear Tree Press’ Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective short story collection. Anna is proud to keep Richard’s memory alive through his writings and will continue to honor Richard’s wish to keep some stories available free to his readers.
New Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective, New Edition by Richard Behrens, available in print on Amazon.
Authored by Richard Behrens
Designed by Stefani Koorey
Illustrated by Marc Reed
Introducing Miss Lizzie Borden of Fall River, Massachusetts, a most excellent girl detective and the most remarkable young woman ever to take on the criminal underworld in late 19th century New England.
Many years before her infamous arrest and trial for the murders of her father and stepmother, Lizzie Borden pursued a career as a private consulting detective and wrestled masterfully with a crooked spiritualist, a corrupt and murderous textile tycoon, a secret society of anarchist assassins, rowdy and deadly sporting boys, a crazed and vengeful mutineer, an industrial saboteur, and a dangerously unhinged math professor—none of whom are ever exactly what they seem to be.
In these five early tales of mystery and adventure, Lizzie Borden is joined by her stubborn and stingy father Andrew; her jealous and weak-chinned sister Emma; her trusted companion Homer Thesinger the Boy Inventor; and the melancholy French scion Andre De Camp. Together, they explore Fall River’s dark side through a landscape that is industrial, Victorian, and distinctly American.
You have met Lizzie Borden before! But never like this!
Includes the following stories:
- The Forlorn Maggie
- The Purloined Curio
- The Exhausted Amanuensis
- The Traumatized Metallurgist
- The Melancholy Scion
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Nine Muses Books
Publication Date: March 11, 2020
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″
Color: Black and White
ISBN: 0991278453 / 978-0991278459
The Audible Amnesiac: and other Lizzie Borden Girl Detective Mysteries by Richard Behrens, available in print and Kindle format from Amazon.
Many years before her infamous arrest and trial for the murders of her father and stepmother, Miss Lizzie Borden was a consulting detective and the most remarkable young woman to take on the criminal underworld in Victorian-era New England. In these comic short stories, Lizzie solves clever mysteries that include quirky characters such as her friend Homer Thesinger, boy inventor: her stingy father Andrew: her jealous and ineffectual sister Emma: and Abby, her dour and stern stepmother. Join teenage Lizzie Borden as she solves crimes in these quirky and clever mysteries!
Page Count: 362 pages
Publisher: Nine Muses Books
Publication Date: July 21, 2018
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″
Color: Black and White
ISBN: 0991278429 / 978-0991278428
Garden Bay Stories: The Shadow Head and Other Tales of the Garden By by Richard Behrens available in print from Amazon.
These stories, vignettes and poetry influenced by his early years, demonstrate Richard Behrens’ talents as a writer and observer. He starts with personal experiences as a young participant in a small-town culture in the middle of New York’s most populated borough. These specific memories are woven into larger tales recognized by anyone from any American “manor” in the latter part of the 20th century, recognized and yet revealed for the first time. Richard makes us look back and reinterpret what we thought we knew. Go back to your old Polaroid snapshots, your vinyl 45s, that high school year book. Richard takes each item from his childhood and adolescence and, in a sense, rips up the pages so he can rewrite the tale to speak to each one of us.
Page Count: 150 pages
Publisher: Nine Muses Books
Publication Date: June 15, 2018
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″
Color: Black and White
ISBN: 0991278410 / 978-0991278411
Of Moons and Monoliths: Collected Essays by Richard Behrens available in both print and Kindle format from Amazon.
There never will be enough words to express the great love for literature, passion for the dramatic arts, and fondness of pen to paper felt by Richard Behrens, the author of this collection of scholarly works. Even though recently embarking on a new path to somewhere hopefully far more adventurous than that of our mundane existence, Richard continues to share with us his astute understanding of the mysterious, intriguing, comical, and veiled nature of humankind through his prolific words of power. His stories stoke a fire within, illuminating so many new ideas and unexplored emotions. Through this collection of essays, Richard’s voice resonates and he shares his wisdom while riding the lunar rhythm of time, with its immortal and eternal enlightenment, breaking through the obvious into a realm of unimaginable potential. His will to express shines brightly, unlimited by time or space, radiating his special kind of joy.
Page Count: 408 pages
Publisher: Nine Muses Books
Publication Date: August 20, 2018
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6″ x 9″
Color: Black and White
ISBN: 0991278437 / 978-0991278435
The Minuscule Monk: A Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective Mystery by Richard Behrens available in both print and ebook format from Amazon. It is also currently enrolled in the Kindle Unlimited program.
When a dead body mysteriously appears in the basement of her father’s furniture store, 15 year-old Lizzie Andrew Borden immediately takes on the case. Accompanied by an eccentric millionaire who campaigns to extend the vote to animals; a Boston terrier trained to sniff out crooked politicians; and a boy detective who believes the entire universe to be inside his own head, Lizzie follows a trail of taxidermy tools and Civil War bushwhackers to the Minuscule Monk, a legendary gunslinger whose mummified body will bring a punter’s pot to anyone who can deliver it to the New York gangster who has been hunting the Monk for decades. With such high stakes, everyone has a motive for murder, yet everyone seems innocent. Or perhaps, as Lizzie suspects after attending a dinner party with non-existent food and meeting a horse that has turned into its opposite, none of it is even real. Lizzie Borden, the Girl Detective of Fall River, is at her most spirited in The Minuscule Monk, a comic mystery that paints a portrait of Fall River at the height of its splendor and its most infamous citizen at the start of her most excellent career.
Page Count: 251 pages
Publisher: Nine Muses Books
Publication Date: July 19, 2015
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
Language: English
ASIN: B0125PZ3VI
Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective Mini-Mysteries by Richard Behrens was published by Nine Muses Books in e-book format.
The Agitated Elocutionist (#1)
The Forlorn Maggie (#2)
The Purloined Curio (#3)
The Melancholy Scion (#4)
The Sculling Boat (#5)
The Exhausted Amanuensis (#6)
Download your free copies on Barnes and Noble
Download your free copies on iTunes
About the Author
Richard Behrens was the talented author of both fiction and non-fiction writings, but he is best known for his Lizzie Borden, Girl Detective mysteries, available on Amazon. He was also the creator and host of The Lizzie Borden Podcast available on iTunes. He lectured on silent film comedy and eccentric Victorian women. He also enjoyed making short films, which are available on his GardenBayFilms channel on YouTube. Richard was a contributor to The Hatchet: A Journal of Lizzie Borden and Victorian Studies and a founding editor of The Trenton Review. His writings on literature and science fiction have been published in The Journal of Advancing Technology and on TheModernWord.com. Sadly, Richard passed away in 2017, but he leaves a legacy of great works.
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