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Public Speaking Details

The psychology behind suspense fiction — how clinical experience with motivation, trauma, and addiction shapes believable characters, unreliable narrators, and morally complex villains. Available for panels and talks on writing mental health accurately in crime fiction.

Biography

MM Desch writes the Portland Murders, a psychological suspense series set in the city she calls home. She spent a career as a general and addiction psychiatrist in Minnesota, Arizona, and Portland, Oregon — decades spent with people's motivations, conflicts, and recoveries — before turning that training loose on crime fiction, where the psychology is real and no one's inner life is as tidy as they'd like you to believe. A childhood attraction to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine grew into a lifelong passion for suspense. Her debut, TANGLED DARKNESS (Rowan Prose Publishing, 2025), was shortlisted for the Chanticleer Clue Awards and named a Readers' Favorite finalist. The novellas IF I GO QUIET and LETHAL LOYALTY expand the series; the next novel, PLAY ME ONCE, arrives January 26, 2027. When not investigating another facet of writing, Mary enjoys hiking with her wife and their rascal mini schnauzer, Portland food carts, golf, and the WNBA.