Beverly M. Kelley

Beverly Merrill Kelley, Ph.D. retired from teaching communication courses after thirty-five years in the department she founded at California Lutheran University. She has instructed so many local attorneys, she is rarely permitted to serve on a jury.

She previously published three nonfiction books that explore the relationship between politics and film as well as numerous scholarly articles in the fields of argumentation, persuasion, credibility, interpersonal communication, television, and film history.

She published five murder mysteries between 2013 and 2024. Inspired by historic events and locations in real life Ventura County, the series chronicles the progress of the Port Cabrillo Cold Case Unit (led by the 50ish Hunter Triplets) in solving serial killings that occurred during the early 1970s.

A former radio and television talk-show host and frequent contributor to the Ventura County Perspective pages of the Los Angeles Times, she retired in 2015 from a eighteen-year career as an opinion columnist for the Ventura County Star.

She resides in a sleepy little beach town on the California coast where she enjoys a view of Anacapa Island. She spends her spare time fundraising for the local library and, as city historian, presently serves on the board of the local historical society museum.

List of Published Books:

Reelpolitik: Political Ideologies in 30s and 40s Films, Praeger, December, l998.

Reelpolitik II: Political Ideologies in 50s and 60s Films, Rowman and Littlefield, March, 2004.

Reelpolitik Ideologies in American Film, Lexington Books, an imprint of Rowman and Littlefield, March, 2012.

The Oldest Cold Case in Port Cabrillo, Get-A-Clue Publications, September, 2013.

The Second Oldest Cold Case in Port Cabrillo, Get-A-Clue Publications, October, 2015.

The Third Oldest Cold Case in Port Cabrillo, Get-A-Clue Publications, September 2020

The Fourth Oldest Cold Case in Port Cabrillo, Get-A-Clue Publications, March 2022

The Fifth Oldest Cold Case in Port Cabrillo, Get-A-Clue Publications, August 2024