Barbara Taylor Sissel

Barbara Taylor Sissel writes women's fiction and suspense in which family loyalty meets the pressure of an unfolding crime. She is also a developmental editor, a role that complements her emphasis on structure, motive, and emotional consequence. Lake Union Publishing issued The Truth We Bury in 2017. Its story brings together mothers Lily Isley and Dru Gallagher after a bridesmaid is found dead and Lily's son disappears before his wedding. What Lies Below, published the following year, centers on Gilly O'Connell, whose troubling dreams become connected to an unresolved family loss and a missing child. Both novels use mystery to examine what relatives conceal, what parents will risk, and how incomplete knowledge shapes judgment. Sissel's work therefore sits between domestic drama and psychological suspense rather than treating crime as a puzzle alone.