Deb Richardson-Moore

Deb Richardson-Moore is a former newspaper journalist who writes in the cozy noir mystery genre.

Her first three novels make up the Branigan Powers mysteries: The Cantaloupe Thief, The Cover Story and Death of a Jester. Branigan is a reporter in Georgia and is aided in her investigations by a homeless man who glides unseen through their small town. Disregarded by the townspeople, he sees and hears things that others do not — especially when it comes to mysterious deaths.

Deb’s first book was the 2012 memoir The Weight of Mercy, which tells about her post-newspaper career as pastor of the non-denominational Triune Mercy Center, a church that includes homeless parishioners in Greenville, South Carolina. Published by Lion Hudson of Oxford, England, the memoir has been used at Harvard and Duke Divinity Schools and was named to the Reading List for United Methodist Women worldwide.

Coming in September 2020: Her stand-alone domestic mystery, Murder, Forgotten.

Deb and her husband Vince are the parents of three children. They live in South Carolina.

The Cantaloupe Thief

The Cantaloupe Thief is not your typical murder mystery. It tackles the questions: What happens when people in a community are unseen, unobserved, invisible? What does it mean for the rest of us – when murder strikes?

The death of matriarch Alberta Grambling Resnick remains unsolved after 10 years, the only unsolved murder in Grambling, Georgia. The townspeople assumed the deed was committed by a transient with no real motive or ties to the community. Newspaper reporter Branigan Powers wants to explore that theory by investigating the homeless encampment where transients live. She thinks it’s a long shot – until homeless people start dying.

Taking us from northeast Georgia to the Carolina coast, from posh southern homes to hidden encampments, Branigan’s investigation is punctuated with the fear that she has resurrected a murderer. Desperate, she seeks help from Malachi Ezekiel Martin, a street-smart homeless veteran who may hold the answer. But can he be trusted?

Praise for The Cantaloupe Thief

Richardson-Moore is both mystery writer and street-smart pastor who doesn’t pretend to understand all the threads that make up her parishioners’ complicated tangle. Life on her pages is messy. For the reader, that’s a gift. Always darkening the faces of many of these complex characters is the capriciousness of mental illness and the hungering need for the next fix. Richardson-Moore makes the ever-present pangs and compulsions of addiction ring like Coltrane.– Matt Matthews, author of Mercy Creek

Prepare to read Deb Richardson-Moore’s The Cantaloupe Thief like you’re getting ready for a Southern snowstorm. Run out and buy your bread and milk, stock the pantry to the brim, and cross everything off your calendar, because once reporter Branigan Powers draws you into her mystery, you’ll stick fast to the couch until you turn the last page. Bravo to Deb for creating a captivating novel so full of heart, humor, and suspense. I simply loved it. – Becky Ramsey, author of French by Heart and The Holy Eclair

The Cantaloupe Thief

Praise for The Cantaloupe Thief

Other Books by Deb

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