Lexa writes the Kestrel Jonas Mystery Series, contemporary whodunits set in San Francisco that blend family drama, social intrigue, and murder. Her debut novel, Legacy of Lies (2022), introduces readers to Kestrel Jonas, a sharp-witted waitress at the exclusive Pacific Union Club who moonlights as an anonymous high-society blogger. When Kestrel discovers she has a sister she neve knew existed—and that sister turns up dead—she’s pulled into a web of lies, DNA surprises, and deadly secrets buried in San Francisco’s wealthiest families.

If you love the amateur sleuth appeal of Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone series, the family secrets and contemporary edge of Lisa Scottoline’s novels, or the San Francisco atmosphere of Laurie R. King’s locked room mysteries, you’ll find yourself right at home in Lexa’s twisty, character-driven mysteries. Readers praise her authentic Bay Area settings (she gets the geography right), her knack for creating complex characters you actually care about, and her ability to balance humor with genuine suspense.

Before turning to creative homicide, Lexa spent her career in Clinical Research for drug and device companies. Now she lives in the Sierras near South Lake Tahoe with her husband, a very fat cat named Jezebal, five opinionated chickens, and forty thousand honeybees who are far better organized than she is. She serves as LineUp Editor for the Mystery Writers of America Northern California chapter, where she gets to talk shop with fellow mystery writers who also dream up creative ways to dispatch fictional victims.