Former Boone teacher Jolene Stratton Philo pens mystery series set in 1970s

Jolene Stratton Philo describes the books in her new West River Mysteries as if Mary Tyler Moore of the 1970s went on “Little House on the Prairie” where an episode of “Murder, She Wrote” was always in production.

Her series centers on the adventures of 21-year-old first-year teacher — turned amateur sleuth — Jane Newell.

Philo will give a talk about her books at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 9 in the second floor meeting room of the Ericson Public Library in Boone.

Before moving to Polk City, Philo resided in Boone from 1985 to 2017. She first developed and coordinated the Talented and Gifted program for the Boone school district before moving back into the classroom, teaching third and fourth grades. She taught in Boone for a total of 18 years before retiring.

Before her time in Boone, she and her husband Hiram spent seven years in the tiny town of Camp Crook, South Dakota — an experience that laid the groundwork for her West River Mysteries, set in the fictional town of Little Missouri, South Dakota, population 92.

“It was two miles from Montana and 20 miles from North Dakota, so in a very remote area,” she said. “We moved there in 1978 but I set the books in 1977 to just kind of ground things a little bit: the town had moved from having a switchboard operated telephone system to the rotary phones that I grew up with in Iowa. All the roads were gravel, and that included the state highway. The lifestyle was 15-20 years back in time.”

Philo taught for two years at a boys ranch, instructing remedial math, while her husband served as the caseworker. She then moved on to a teaching job at the town’s school.

Her heroine Jane hails from Sioux City. Philo is originally from Le Mars and graduated from the now-defunct Westmar University.

“Although not all the characters are there, some people (in the books) are pretty much patterned after some really unique people we knew,” she said. “Anybody else in the story, including the students and their parents and the townspeople, are an amalgamation, or have the spirit of the people and the community.”

Philo noted that several figures in the books have disabilities.

“They’re active members of the community, because when you’re in that small of a community, everybody’s abilities are needed,” she said.

For instance, Philo modeled two characters after a real life couple she had known while living in Camp Crook. The wife was a telephone operator and the husband did line work.

“She had a cleft palate and cleft lip repair, one of the first done at Mayo Clinic, so it wasn’t well done. She was very hard to understand, but she was the one who connected you to everybody and kind of spread all the news of the town to everyone and listened in on a lot of conversations,” Philo said. “Her husband was blind, but he would climb the poles and somebody would tell him where the wires were and he could find them and fix everything. They were a unique couple and I wanted to include that flavor in the book.”

In Philo’s first book in the series “See Jane Run!,” Jane investigates a hit-and-run fatality that leaves one of her new students an orphan. The idea was loosely based on the real-life 1978 unsolved disappearance of a rancher. But the town’s zany residents add a dose of humor to the otherwise serious business of murder.

Book two, titled “See Jane Sing!,” releases Nov. 1. It picks up three months after the action in the previous novel and is set at Christmastime. Jane helps uncover the truth about the death of a teenage boy who had run away from a nearby ranch. Cranky school janitor Velma Albright, switchboard operator Betty Yarborough and neighbor Merle Laird aid her.

Philo is working on a third book called “See Jane Dance!” due out in a year. A fourth book called “See Jane Dig!” would explore the area’s rich history as a site for dinosaur fossils.

Her first two books will be available for purchase at the event, as well as on Amazon, in paperback, hardcover and Kindle, and at Dog-Eared Books in Ames and Beaverdale Books in Des Moines. Her publisher is Midwestern Books.

Philo is also the author of six books pertaining to special needs. She earned a master’s degree in effective teaching from Drake University and facilitates professional development classes for Heartland Area Education Agency.

For more information, visit Philo's website, www.jolenephilo.com.

This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Author Jolene Stratton Philo to give book talk in Boone Nov. 9