Introducing Cassandra Sato

Dear Readers: As part of our five-year anniversary celebration, we are throwing it back to where everything started: the smart, sassy voice of Cassandra Sato, newly minted Vice-President for Student affairs at Morton College. If you are new to Cassandra and her friends, here’s a peek behind the scenes from her point of view. Welcome to the series!

Aloha, Cassandra Sato here.

What was I thinking, swapping Hawaii’s sunny paradise for Nebraska’s unpredictable charms?

I was fresh from the island of Oahu, Hawai’i, diving headfirst into my dream administrator job at Morton College. Flowers were blooming, the breeze was just right, and my ambitions were as high as the July temperatures. It all seemed perfect… until it wasn’t.

Two months in, and my dream morphs into a scene straight out of CSI. A Deaf student’s untimely death spirals into a tangled mess involving campus food service, suspicious beef supplies, and murky cancer research. As if adjusting to a new job wasn’t tricky enough, now I’m surfing through a rough swell, each wave more unpredictable than the North Shore in February.

Then there’s Lance Erickson, the Deaf work-study student with secrets of his own, wrapped in a visual world I can hardly breach with my rudimentary ASL. Throw in a too-curious sheriff, a relentless reporter breathing down my neck, a boss who’d rather sweep everything under the rug, and a stalker masquerading as Zorro—yeah, you heard that right.

Now, I’m caught in the eye of a storm, where unmasking truths could mean the difference between clearing an innocent student’s name and becoming the next headline. Morton College promised a new chapter, but I didn’t expect it to be a mystery novel with me as the reluctant protagonist.

Death by Dissertation is my tale of survival in the academic wilderness. A crash course in resilience, sleuthing, and the art of academic speak under pressure. Can I navigate this crazy episode and solve a murder without flunking out of Nebraska? Let’s find out, shall we?

Kelly Brakenhoff is the author of 15 books and a seasoned ASL interpreter. She splits her writing energy between two series: cozy mysteries set on a college campus and children’s books featuring Duke the Deaf Dog.

Parents, kids, and teachers love the children’s books and activity guides because they introduce ASL and the Deaf community through fun, engaging stories. And if you enjoy a smart female sleuth, want to learn more about Deaf culture, or have ever lived in a place where livestock outnumber people, the Cassandra Sato Mystery series will have you connecting the dots faster than a group project coming together the night before it’s due.

A proud mom to four adults, head of the dog-snuggling department, and grandma to a growing brood of perfectly behaved grandkids, Kelly and her husband call Nebraska home.