Kay Jennings Books In Order

Publication Order of Port Stirling Books

Kay Jennings has been an editor and a writer for other people for the majority of her career and decided to pivot and make a change by writing for herself! She made her debut with the Port Stirling Mystery series of novels, came out with several more in the series, and decided that it was the right time in her life to write on a full-time basis.

When Kay worked in the corporate world she focused on PR as well as sports writing and editing and corporate communications. She has served also as a writer and a writing couch for the international sports website Bleacher Report.

Kay also worked at Nike, Inc. as a director of internal communications. She has been in senior management positions for tourism and healthcare communications as well. She also founded the full-service communications firm Paris Communications, a firm that she has been the owner of since the year 2000.

The author was born close to the Oregon coast, raised in a small town. The town is not dissimilar to Port Stirling, the fictional locations in her book. She is married to her husband Steve and they live together in Estacada, Oregon. She spends a lot of time hanging out in their garden, which covers much of their five-acre property. She loves to play golf badly, cook, read, travel around the world, and follow her sports team.

Kay Jennings belongs to many writing groups, including the Oregon Writers colony, Willamette Writers, Sisters in Crime, and Mystery Writers of America.

Shallow Waters is the first novel in the Port Stirling Mystery series of novels. This novel first became available for readers in 2019. If you love a good mystery story, be sure to give this debut a try!

In a small village in Oregon located off the coast, nothing hardly ever happens. Well, it does, but the sleepy village keeps its secrets. Then there’s a new police chief that has started his position there with his own past to contend with.

Matt Horning is the new Port Stirling Chief of Police, and he was hoping that he wouldn’t have too much commotion pop up on the first day of his job. But trouble has a way of finding him, and the mayor’s daughter has just been found dead.

The young lady was fatally stabbed and found in a tunnel on some Oregon beach. Matt Horning thought that coming to Port Stirling would serve as a new start for him, and help him get away from the troubles of his job in Texas. The vacant post was supposed to help him begin again and find some peace in a place where the Pacific Ocean hopefully lulls everything into a state of calm. That was his hope, anyway.

He thought that this would be the type of place where nothing happens, but he’s starting to realize just how wrong he was. To top that off, he has no idea why Emily Bushnell was killed. There doesn’t appear to be any real motive that was in play. Then the medical examiner conducts the autopsy and finds out that Emily has actual bite marks on her, and they’re from a human.

So Emily was not sexually assaulted, no one has any real grudges against her, and no one knows the reason why she had to die. It’s up to Horning and his country crime team to put their minds to the case and figure out just what happened here and why.

Little does Horning know that he’s about to come up against a true killer, something this small town has not really ever seen. His job is made even more complex by a county district attorney who is far too aggressive and doesn’t want to give up the attention to the chief of police that has just stepped onto the scene. Horning has no idea whether his new beginning will ever take off at this point, and is dismayed by this new obstacle in his job.

Horning starts looking into the murder in January, and quickly starts to find answers and also find out that Port Stirling has more dark secrets and revelations to unfold than he suspected. Now Chief Horning and his team must race against time to try and figure out more about who killed this young girl and why. They also now know that there’s a murderer out there, and they must work quickly because the killer might strike again.

Matt Horning just wanted to start over, but it appears that he’s going to have to earn that peace and fresh start. Will catching a killer mean that he can finally build some positive momentum and start settling in? Or will this case just show him that you can’t ever truly start again? Read this mystery to find out!

Midnight Beach is the second novel in the Port Stirling Mystery series from Kay Jennings. It was first released in 2020. If you liked the first book in this mystery series, check out the exciting sequel!

Police Chief Matt Horning now has to deal with the second homicide of his career in his new home in Oregon. He was just getting used to things returning to normal and getting to a nice consistent rhythm with the workplace in the police department when a new dead body turns up, this time close to the Pacific Ocean in a marsh.

He had no idea that this job on the Oregon coast would end up being so busy. When spring starts unfolding there, he knows that the undertones of this case are warning him. Could this end up leading to him discovering that this small coastal village is actually home to a drug ring?

Trying to face his own demons, the Police Chief also has to face the facts. This is not just some group of petty criminals handing over pot for profit. But he’s going to have to work hard if he wants to find out who is behind that dead body and why. Can Horning figure out who the culprit is in time, or will the peace of this place end up being permanently disrupted? Read this mystery from Kay Jennings to find out!

One Response to “Kay Jennings”

1. Kimberly Gerlach: 4 months ago

   Really enjoying the Port Stirling series. Keep em coming, please.

   Reply