The Book of Phoebe. New York, Doubleday, 1985
Lament for a Silver-Eyed Woman. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1987
The Port of Missing Men. New York: William Morrow and Co., 1989
Master of Illusion. New York: Warner Books, 1994. Continue reading Mary-Ann Tirone Smith – Biographical and Critical Sources
Returning to the fictional who-dun-it genre, this time with her son Jere, Tirone Smith in Dirty Water (2008) brings us a “Red Sox Mystery.” In the first chapter, a man wearing a press pass and a curiously lumpy backpack enters Gate D at Fenway Park the morning before a day-night doubleheader. He leaves the backpack in the clubhouse. The chapter ends with a transcribed excerpt from a Sox fan’s blog, which is to be a recurring chapter finish throughout the book. Continue reading from Dirty Water: A Red Sox Mystery
Girls of Tender Age, Chapter 22 (Final Section)
Reader Advisory: some readers may find this segment disturbing
In Chapter Twenty-Two the central horror of Tirone Smith’s childhood is almost too difficult to read. Tirone Smith is not one for sensationalism, though, and crafted detail follows crafted detail in grim succession. The aftermath of the murder of 11-year-old Irene Fiedorowicz starts with a police officer leaving for work late at night. Continue reading Girls of Tender Age, Chapter 22 (Final Section)
Girls of Tender Age, Chapter Nine
Chapter Nine of Girls of Tender Age treats a visit to the downtown Hartford department store G. Fox, a visit that can’t possibly have been duplicated any time in the store’s history. Continue reading Girls of Tender Age, Chapter Nine
In Girls of Tender Age (2006), Tirone Smith drew on the memories of a Hartford childhood and the tragedy that haunted it. In Chapter Seven we meet her autistic and beloved brother Tyler, a portrait of the Charter Oak Terrace housing project in its early days, and a hilarious piano-moving scene. Continue reading from Girls of Tender Age
Masters of Illusion (1994) was Mary-Ann Tirone Smith’s fourth novel. It is a fictional account of the Hartford Circus Fire of 1944 and the decades following. The protagonist and the fire arrive on the first page, and then there’s a life-changing meeting on an Old Saybrook beach. Continue reading from Masters of Illusion
With five novels and three mysteries under her belt, Tirone Smith had established a sterling reputation by 2002 when she was asked by Hartford Courant Books Editor Carole Goldberg to write the keynote essay for the newspaper’s first annual Literary Supplement, which focused on Hartford authors. A phone call from a reader helped lead to her acclaimed memoir, Girls of Tender Age. Continue reading “Awhirl in a Kaleidoscope of City Memories”