Part of the Solution: A Mystery by Author Elana Michelson
If the counterculture still lingers in your memory — or your imagination — Part of the Solution: A Mystery offers a trip worth taking. Set in a bohemian Massachusetts town in 1978, Elana Michelson’s literary whodunit blends Agatha Christie-style intrigue with wind chimes, idealism, and a soundtrack of classic oldies. The result is a smart, character-driven narrative where snappy dialogue, retro charm, and cultural panache collide with murder.
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Interview from YouTube with Elana Michelson
’70s-Era Whodunit with Bohemian Charm and Classic Clues Brings Counterculture Back to Life
ROSENDALE, N.Y., Jan. 27, 2026 — In Part of the Solution: A Mystery, author Elana Michelson transports readers to a bohemian corner of Massachusetts in 1978, where the glow of lava lamps and the crackle of vinyl form the backdrop for a cleverly crafted murder mystery. Witty, literate, and warmly nostalgic, the novel blends the familiar pleasures of a classic whodunit with Dylan on the stereo, veggie moussaka on the table, and a joint making the rounds.
It’s 1978, and Jennifer Morgan, a quick-witted New Yorker in flight from graduate school, has traded academia for poetry readings, craft shops, and boysenberry muffins in the countercultural haven of Flanders, Massachusetts. But her peaceful refuge takes a dark turn when a dead body interrupts the community’s calm.
Egged on by her Tarot-reading housemate and opposed by a hippie-hating police chief, Jennifer takes it upon herself to solve the murder before the darkness destroys her hard-won idyll in the countryside. The suspects? A gentle woodworker with secrets, a poet with delusions of grandeur, an anti-war hero, a peace-loving minister, and an organic farmer who knows how to hold a grudge.
As the mystery deepens, Jennifer reluctantly teams up with Ford McDermot, a young police officer whose quiet intelligence might make him the unlikeliest ally — or something more. Together (and often separately), they chase a trail of clues that winds through strychnine-laced pickles, poisonous gopher bait at the food co-op, and cocaine in an abandoned Pontiac — all while life in Flanders grinds to a paranoid halt.
With a precision that feels lived-in rather than idealized, Michelson’s mystery delivers nostalgia as hard-earned wisdom rather than as rose-colored memory. How do the decisions we’ve made come to shape us, to haunt us? What do justice and loyalty look like when they are no longer simple youthful idealism?
Boomers with long memories will be transported back to the days of Che Guevara posters and grass-inspired giggles, while younger audiences will be drawn into the vintage vibe of a bygone era. Part of the Solution is a delicious romp, but one in which neither the characters nor the readers get off scot-free.
Part of the Solution: A Mystery
Publisher: Torchflame Books
ISBN-13: 978-1611536041
