Black Crow Press LLC

Black Crow Press LLC Black Crow Press LLC is a woman's own small business founded with the goal to publish quality myster

02/14/2025

Here's hoping Seyla and Vashti will be published this year. The cover is done. Self publishing is always a challenge. As I review this shorter novel about the theft of healthcare data, I find it even more relevant that when I wrote it. Written during the Covid pandemic, it is set in a time forward, like now. Covid is still with us but restrictions are over. New characters, two young women, serious computer skills, keyboards and connectivity, malicious actors foreign and domestic, and no patience for either. What could possibly go wrong?

11/21/2021

New book coming February 2022.

Red Screen Rising, a Seyla and Vashti Mystery

Did you know that 'geek' is gender neutral? Two young women seeking degrees in computer science defy expectations as they encounter ransomware, cyber stalking and theft of medical data, when coding turns deadly... Seyla Antony and Vashti Kumar are on the case.

Beth Janelle Stone cover illustrator, left, and author K. M. Umbricht, right, sign first edition presentation copies of...
05/10/2021

Beth Janelle Stone cover illustrator, left, and author K. M. Umbricht, right, sign first edition presentation copies of Harbor Chase, Spring House Mysteries Book 2. The cover painting shows the old Southwest Ledge light off East Haven, CT on Long Island Sound. The illustration for the Black Crow Press logo was created as cut paper art by Beth Stone. The cover design was done by Kim Killion, and the internal layout was done by Jennifer Jakes, of The Killion Group. The printing was done by Amazon. We are really proud to present a high quality book product.

Harbor Chase now available in paper and ebook from Amazon. Harbor Chase starts 15 minutes after the end of Mystery at t...
03/01/2021

Harbor Chase now available in paper and ebook from Amazon. Harbor Chase starts 15 minutes after the end of Mystery at the Spring House with a Molotov cocktail thrown on the lawn of the Spring House. Mystery at the Spring House, Book 1 of the series was a Finalist in the International Digital Awards category mystery and suspense, and Harbor Chase continues the story. It's even more suspense, romance and adventure for the three women at the Spring House. The cover painting is the Southwest Ledge Light off Morgan Point, East Haven, Connecticut. The original painting is by Beth Janelle Stone. Black Crow Press is woman owned indie publisher.

02/03/2021

Coming soon, Harbor Chase, Spring House Mysteries Book 2 will release in February!

Trouble Comes Knocking Again at the Spring House’s Door

Miranda Elice (Em) Huber’s divorce from the philandering professor and the purchase of the Spring House have left her strapped for cash (bye-bye 401k). Em’s new competitive research consulting business is in serious jeopardy, as is the safety of her family. One client is murdered, another is missing along with their game changing solar plans. Em’s day begins with a firebomb tossed onto the cobblestones in front of her country home—a warning to stop searching for her client and his invention. To save her business, Em picks up the trail of a missing witness. To do this she enlists her college aged fitness nut daughter Deanna and her best friend Sandy. Did the unknown woman do a runner, or is she floating face down in the river on her way to Long Island Sound? Are Em’s business and love life jinxed? Or is she just waiting to mix business with pleasure?

Michael Halloran, director of a covert federal agency, seeks critical solar plans and is on the hunt for the killer of his second in command from a human trafficking raid. A hurricane stirs up New Haven Harbor revealing a body partially encased in cement. While Mike and Em team up to unravel a conspiracy to steal American high technology trade secrets, Mike must decide if he wants to take this partnership further. Will Em let him?

03/08/2020

The cover illustration for Harbor Chase Is now complete, a moody scene on the Sound looking out at Sou'west Ledge light off East Haven, CT. The light is an older structure with a lot of character. Last year we took the illustrator Beth Janelle Stone out to Light House Point park on New Haven Harbor. That light house is white and straight sided, a classic well worth a visit with a carousel in the park. She chose the smaller light out on a rocky ledge. A good choice.

11/07/2019

Mystery At the Spring House is a finalist in the International Digital Awards Contest of the Oklahoma Chapter of Romance Writers of America. Spring House placed fourth in the Mystery and Suspense category.

05/31/2019

Even more fun than Book 1!

05/31/2019

Coming soon, Harbor Chase, Spring House Mysteries Book 2
K.M. Umbricht

Harbor Chase, Spring House Mysteries Book 2 K.M. Umbricht
Forthcoming Summer 2019
Black Crow Press LLC
paper and ebook

Best laid business plans

Em Huber’s client is missing. Things are not going to plan. Her divorce from the philandering professor and the purchase of the Spring House in rural Connecticut have left her strapped for legendary state property taxes (bye, bye, 401K). She relaunches a career lost to corporate downsizing. Released from “the padded envelope we call corporate life,” she hopes her creative streak that was so successful in competitive research will translate into a well-paying consulting business. In need of assistance she enlists her college aged fitness nut daughter Deanna and her best friend Sandy. Em’s carefully prepared business plan goes wildly wrong. Her first clients, two eccentric professors, are inventors of game changing solar panel technology; their plans were stolen, one has been murdered and the other fled for his life and disappeared. Her eligible dinner date, a geology professor, never calls back, is he dead or missing, too? Are Em’s business and love life jinxed?

Em and her young associates are knee deep in mystery and more they can’t run away from. Could they be in too far over their tech savvy, capable heads?

And along comes Michael

Working a parallel case, Mike Halloran, director of a covert federal agency, is investigating high level human trafficking that resulted in the death of an agent, as well as the theft of the critical solar plans. Resourceful and adventurous, tasting freedom from an over bearing ex-husband, Em attracts his interest. But he’d better learn to play nice because she’s one stop ahead of him all the way. Em tries to apply the “ten date rule” to Mike and fails pleasurably. Under increasing pressure to find the solar plans and solve the mysterious death of one of the inventors, they team up to find the killers and stop the conspiracy to steal American high technology trade secrets and to abduct the people who create them.

05/22/2019

The Black Crow Press Logo

We love crows. Handsome. Sociable. Young crows come home to visit their parents. Our logo is cut paper art and hand lettering. The crow is in pieces that we can compose, and was cut for us by the artist Beth Janelle Stone. The hand lettering was done by repeating the same letters over and over again with a blue Flair to create each one, then cut and pasted together. The letting was done by the publisher. The logo images were put together by the designer Kim Killion of the Killion Group for us.

05/17/2019

The story of the cover on Mystery at the Spring House.

The illustration is an original watercolor painting by Beth Janelle Stone, without the blood spot. The spot was added by the cover designer Kim Killion of the Killion Group. The full illustration without the title medallion on the cover appears in the paperback in black and white as the first page. The tree is a New England sugar maple, just like the trees that line the country road that leads to the Spring House. The Adirondack chair plays an important part in the story. Check it out in the paper edition!

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