Jessica Nettles

Jessica Nettles combines historical fantasy and Southern Gothic fiction with folklore, science, and overlooked figures from American history. Falstaff Books launched her first novel, The Children of Menlo Park, during 2021. This work reimagines Kate Warne, the first woman employed as a Pinkerton detective, as a spectral investigator who returns to work beyond ordinary life. With her partner Shadow, Kate searches for a missing girl whose disappearance connects to Thomas Edison and an unusual group surrounding his Menlo Park laboratory. The novel brings real historical names into an invented mystery involving magic, invention, and hidden identities. Nettles has taught English at Chattahoochee Technical College and earned degrees in English and professional writing. Her shorter fiction includes “The Undead Have No Dignity,” published in Off the Beaten Path 4. The Children of Menlo Park establishes her characteristic blend of documented history and speculative possibility, using Kate’s investigative role to question familiar legends about celebrated inventors and national progress.