About J.M. Kelly

J.M. Kelly has been a middle school teacher, a vice-principal, a principal, a co-director of the New Jersey State History Fair, a consultant for the New Jersey Foundation for Educational Administration, a board member of the Global Learning Project, and president of the Morris County Association of Elementary and Middle School Administrators.

He has received numerous education awards, including the New Jersey Governor’s Teacher Award, two Geraldine Dodge Foundation Grants, and the New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association Principal of the Year Award for Visionary Leadership in 2007. Kelly has authored two professional books based on this experience.

Kelly’s love of mysteries, adventures, and everything about Sherlock Holmes led him to create eleven-year-old Bobby Holmes and his cousin Brenda Watson, who star in Kelly’s middle-school horror books, The Lost Treasure and Monster on the Moors.

Tommy Ails: Good For What Ails You, Kelly’s first novel for adults, is a humorous off-beat mystery.

Kelly’s second novel for adults, Crover Island, is a horror story inspired by a dense fog that rolled inland on the New Jersey shore while he and his wife were enjoying a morning cup of coffee.

Kelly divides his time between Sea Girt, New Jersey and Sarasota, Florida, with his wife Bronwen. They have three grown children, Peter, Alex, and Brianna.