Mary Helen Darah

Local author and Sylvania native D.S. Lang will release her seventh book in a historical mystery series set in Ohio. “A Treacherous Accusation,” the next book in the Arabella Stewart Historical Mystery series, will be available on Dec. 17.

D.S. Lang started making up stories to entertain herself as an only child. Not only did she continue to create tales into adulthood, she put them in writing. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education from the University of Toledo she worked as a golf shop manager, junior high, high school and college educator, a program manager, tutor and mentor.

She finally found the time to devote to her passion of writing when she retired. She recalled, “I retired and tutored with a team composed of a great group of people that had all been English instructors. Everybody was interested in writing so we took an online course together. I told the group that eventually I would get around to writing a book.”

November is called National Writing Month and writers are encouraged to write a book during the month of November. “Well, November came and went,” Lang said. “I made my own novel writing month and did it then. I love to read historical mysteries so I sat down and wrote the basic story in one month and tweaked the rest in six months. I had several friends read it and got valuable feedback. I published the first book in 2021 after I had written the first four in the series. The books change a lot from the original versions. Thankfully I have a team of friends that are really good about giving me honest advice.”

The books, The Arabella Stewart Historical Mystery series, are set in the fictional town of Moreley, Ohio after the Great War. Bella returns home from serving as a United States Army Signal Corps operator to find her family’s resort on the brink of closure. Her resolve is tested when she finds a murdered neighbor shortly after her return. Finding the killer puts Bella on the path of amateur sleuth, much to the dismay of her childhood and girlhood crush, Constable Jax Hastings. The pair solve the case, only to be ensnared in several more as the book series progresses. In the seventh book, the main character, Bella, must conjure up a Christmas miracle to keep an innocent suspect out of the electric chair and find the actual killer.

Lang truly enjoys writing and will continue to do so in the future. “The last book in the series will be out in February,” she said. “I am wrapping the series up after that. I will miss the characters but I am ready to move on. I would like my next book to take place in Sylvania. The streets haven’t really changed and Sylvania has such an interesting history.”