Book record · Former Barking Rain Press title
Shadow Notes:
A Clara Montague Mystery
by Laurel S. Peterson
Clara Montague comes home to Connecticut convinced her mother is in danger, then sees her jailed for killing her therapist. The first Clara Montague mystery, published by Barking Rain Press in 2016 and reissued by Woodhall Press in 2021.
This book was once published by Barking Rain Press, which announced its closure in 2019. This site is not that publisher and does not sell books. See “Finding the book today” below.
Premise
Clara Montague, who is in her thirties, has been living in Europe, partly to keep her distance from her mother, Constance. A series of dreams convinces her that Constance is in danger, so she comes home to Connecticut. Soon afterward, Constance’s therapist, Hugh Woodward, is murdered, and Constance is jailed for the crime. Clara starts investigating on her own. Along the way she finds the private notes the therapist kept on his sessions with her mother, and she faces growing threats as she closes in on the truth. Alongside the investigation, Clara has to decide whether to take over her late father’s landscaping business or leave for Paris.
The publisher’s press release places the family in Connecticut; a 2016 review locates the story in a small town in southern Fairfield County, among a well-off community.
Publication history
Barking Rain Press published Shadow Notes: A Clara Montague Mystery in 2016, with a press release dated May 24, 2016. It came out as a 232-page trade paperback (ISBN 978-1-941295-45-8) and as an ebook in ePub, Kindle and PDF formats (ISBN 978-1-941295-46-5). The press release called it the first book in the Clara Montague Mysteries and listed amateur-sleuth, women-sleuths and crime-thriller subject categories. In a guest post on Jungle Red Writers in June 2016, the author said the book had just been released and linked to its Barking Rain Press page.
Barking Rain Press is reported to have closed around 2019. Shadow Notes was later reissued by Woodhall Press in 2021, under the same subtitle, with ISBNs 978-1-949116-36-6 and 978-1-949116-37-3. The catalog records consulted don’t say which format each ISBN belongs to. The author’s website now lists only the Woodhall Press edition, along with a second Clara Montague novel, The Fallen (Woodhall Press, 2021).
Laurel S. Peterson is a professor of English at Norwalk Community College and served as Norwalk, Connecticut’s first poet laureate (2016–2019). She has also published poetry chapbooks.
Reading notes
These observations come from desk research of publisher, author and reviewer descriptions. They are not a reading report.
The premise follows the amateur-sleuth tradition: the investigator is a family member with a personal stake, not a police officer. In this case she relies more on intuition than on procedure. The publisher’s categories fit this, pairing the traditional mystery with suspense elements as the threats against Clara grow.
The central device is a therapist’s confidential session notes, which the title points to. It links the crime plot to themes of privacy, memory and what one generation hides from the next. A strained mother–daughter relationship drives the story, so the mystery also works as a family drama. Clara has to understand her mother’s past in order to clear her.
In a 2016 guest post on writing and social justice, the author described writing as a way of giving people a voice and said the novel has wicked politicians as a theme. A contemporary review also pointed to the troubles of the rich and privileged, including scheming socialites and corrupt politicians, in its affluent Connecticut setting. Readers who enjoy mysteries with a strong sense of place and social commentary may want to look at it with those themes in mind.
Finding the book today
Barking Rain Press no longer sells books, so the 2016 paperback and ebook are out of print from that publisher. The current edition is the 2021 Woodhall Press reissue, which the author’s website lists. Readers can search public library catalogs or WorldCat by title, by author, or by any of the ISBNs above to find copies of either edition. Used-book marketplaces may also carry the original Barking Rain Press paperback.
Finding the book today
The current edition is from Woodhall Press (2021), listed on the author's website. Library catalogs and WorldCat can be searched by title, author or ISBN; the 2016 Barking Rain Press edition is out of print.
Discussion questions
- Clara returns home because of dreams rather than evidence. How does the novel set intuition against the usual tools of a detective?
- Clara has spent years in Europe at a distance from her mother. How does that history shape the way she approaches Constance's arrest?
- A therapist's confidential session notes sit at the center of the mystery. What questions about privacy and trust does that raise?
- Clara has to choose between her late father's landscaping business and a life in Paris. How does that choice connect to the investigation?
- The author has written about writing as a way of giving people a voice, and named wicked politicians as a theme of this novel. Where do questions of power, money or privilege show up in this premise?
- What does the wealthy Connecticut setting add to a story about a family's hidden past?
- How does an amateur sleuth's personal stake change how a reader judges her decisions compared with a professional investigator's?
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Sources
- Now in Print & eBook: Shadow Notes by Connecticut Author Laurel S. Peterson, PR.com. Accessed 2026-11-12.
- Writing and Social Justice by Laurel Peterson, Jungle Red Writers. Accessed 2026-11-12.
- Shadow Notes, by Laurel Peterson, Of Books and Bicycles. Accessed 2026-11-12.
- Laurel S. Peterson (author website). Accessed 2026-11-12.
- The Fallen: A Clara Montague Mystery (ISBN 9781949116380), BiggerBooks. Accessed 2026-11-12.
- Open Library: Shadow Notes, Woodhall Press, ISBN 9781949116366, Open Library. Accessed 2026-11-12.
- Open Library: Shadow Notes, Woodhall Press, ISBN 9781949116373, Open Library. Accessed 2026-11-12.