Review: Kate Michaelson

Toledo academic and poet lends talents to mystery genre

PERRYSBURG – Riley Svendson enters the home of her friend and future sister-in-law, Beth, expecting to pick up her bridesmaid dress and be on her way. Though everything looks normal, even idyllic in a very Midwest Living kind of way, Riley’s sister-in-law is nowhere to be found. As she continues to look around the property, a sick feeling comes over her as she finds signs of foul play.

In this opening scene of Hidden Rooms, the main character’s internals unveil another important part of the book: that Riley doesn’t quite trust her instincts anymore due to a mysterious illness. Both that illness and the fate of her friend are central to this character-driven debut novel by Toledo’s own Kate Michaelson.

Michaelson’s Medical mysteries

Michaelson began having symptoms of Lyme disease in 2009, though it took a significant amount of time and testing to finally receive the diagnosis.

“I had a CT scan, an MRI and nerve conduction studies,” she says. “Everything came back basically normal. A neurologist told me that she was testing me for MS, she said, ‘There’s nothing wrong with you neurologically.’ I just started crying because it’s so hard not having an answer.”

Michaelson uses her personal search for a diagnosis to ground us in the main character’s world. The undertones within the loving-yet-dysfunctional family surrounding Riley are unsettling, even more so as we get the sense she’s not taken seriously in her health struggles. It’s subtle at times, but it’s there. Add that to the backdrop of a violent crime, and you’ve got yourself a page turner.

“It inspired me to write the book: the search for answers and how you start to not trust your judgment. You feel like something’s wrong, but you don’t get an answer,” she said.

The real North Haven

Though Kate has lived in Toledo for many years, she is originally from Greenwich, Ohio, a rural community that inspired the fictional town of North Haven, the setting for Hidden Rooms. She recently did a reading at the Greenwich Library, where she had a telling conversation with her first grade teacher about her literary aspirations.

“She reminded me that in first grade we did this young authors program, and I told her then that I was going to be an author. So I wouldn’t say I began the journey [as a writer] then, but it’s something I’ve always wanted,” Michaelson recalled.

Literary genre fiction

Michaelson grew up reading Agatha Christie mysteries and watching Murder, She Wrote and Columbo, but her writing pursuits as a young adult veered more literary and academic. She has an MFA in poetry and a Ph.D. in educational psychology. During the height of the COVID lockdown, she realized she wanted to pursue this idea for a novel that had taken root in her mind. 

“I was writing academic articles that are so labor intensive, and hardly anyone’s reading them. And I thought, ‘Why am I doing all of this work on writing that nobody wants to read?’ That’s not to say there’s no point to academic writing.

Michaelson decided that if she can write a 300-page dissertation, she could at least try to write a 300-page novel.

That led Michaelson to seek out help from the Toledo Writer’s Group, where she brought in drafts of her first couple of chapters. She began to feel confident in the direction she was going with Hidden Rooms.

“They gave me great advice,” said Michaelson. “They said, ‘If it’s a mystery, it needs to have a hook. We need to turn the page at the end of the chapter. This isn’t your beginning.’ But they were very complimentary about the writing, and it was exactly what I needed to hear.”

It was actually during one of sessions with the Writer’s Group that Michaelson saw a missed call from Cam Cat Books. They offered to publish Hidden Rooms and Michaelson enthusiastically accepted. Since then, the author has been spending much of her time doing readings and speaking to the press about her book, which has been a huge hit among mystery lovers.

Part of what makes Michaelson’s work exceptional is the ease in which she employs figurative language. That’s not surprising for someone with a MFA in poetry, but it’s typically not what readers of literary fiction think of when they consider genre fiction. Michaelson embraces the tropes and format of the medium while asserting that mysteries can be as character-driven and richly written as any novel.

“The mysteries I love are just as compelling emotionally and have just as much of a character arc as any literary fiction to me,” she says. “That inspired me to write a mystery that isn’t solely about its plot-driven elements.”

What’s next?

Michaelson is working on the sequel to Hidden Rooms, also featuring Riley Svendson. This time, after human remains are discovered in North Haven, Riley investigates what may have been the murder of her long-lost childhood friend.

Along with this highly anticipated novel, Michaelson is working on a stand-alone novel about a professional mourner (yes, there is such a thing!) based in Sarasota, FL. 

Find Kate Michaelson’s work on katemichaelsonwriter.com. She’ll be reading at Gathering Volumes for the bookstore’s Wine and Words book club on October 1.  

About the Author:

Do you write everyday? No 

Where do you write? In my living room, on the couch. 

Do you have a word/page count you try to hit? My goal is 1,000 words when I’m drafting. 

Music or no music? No music. 

What are you reading right now? What Comes Around by Annette Dashofy. The other is Be Not Far From Me by Mindy McGinnis. 

When you are stuck during a scene, how do you move past that block? Getting up and going for a walk with my dog. 

Do you write only on the computer, or some longhand? I do longhand writing when I’m trying to brainstorm. 

Do you edit as you write, or save it for the very end? I do some editing as I write. I try to save it, but I can’t help myself. 

Best book you’ve ever read: That’s a tough one. I really like White Noise by Don DeLillo. 

Favorite writer: Right now, Tana French.