Donna Keel Armer

The nonprofit Pat Conroy Literary Center is honored to host a free public drop-in launch event for Donna Keel Armer’s Moringa: Tree of Life ~ Book #2 in the Cat Gabbiano Mystery Series. Join us on Saturday, June 15, from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. at 601 Bladen St., in downtown Beaufort. No advance registration required. Books will be available for sale and signing. Refreshments will be provided. The author will speak briefly at 5:45 p.m.

“Set against the backdrop of marshes and oaks draped with Spanish moss in South Carolina, Moringa: Tree of Life is a page-turner of a mystery that addresses real life and difficult societal issues. As with Armer’s other novels, readers are drawn into the lives of her characters and their stories and are pulling for them all the way. Moringa: Tree of Life is yet another beautifully crafted masterpiece destined for an award.”—Niles Reddick, author of Who’s Going to Pray for Me Now? and Forgiven

“Donna Keel Armer’s second novel in her Cat Gabbiano Mystery Series continues the spine-tingling page-turning allure of The Red Starfish. After fleeing Italy, Cat returns to her South Carolina Lowcountry home. While struggling to rebuild her business, she stumbles into a covert FBI operation on an abandoned plantation on the cusp of a wedding reception, a setting interwoven with ties to a Spanish count, a state senator, and an undercover federal agent. Once again, fate calls on Cat to solve a seemingly impossible mystery as she struggles to find her footing against the backdrop of corruption, human trafficking, and dangerous liaisons. Armer has gifted new and returning readers with a resolute and emphatic heroine, one who fails and falls, and nevertheless rises again. Cat’s appeal is universal; she is on a journey, as are we all.” —Jonathan Haupt, coeditor of Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy

“Donna Keel Armer hits another home run with Moringa: The Tree of Life. An electrifying second novel in the Cat Gabbiano Mystery Series.” —Dana Ridenour, author of the award-winning Lexie Montgomery FBI series

About the Author
Donna Keel Armer is the author of The Red Starfish, Book #1 in the Cat Gabbiano Mystery Series, and Solo in Salento: A Memoir, which has been translated into Italian as Un’americana in Salento. She recently completed a book tour of Southern Italy. She’s a photojournalist and has published essays for travel anthologies and in magazines featuring photographs and articles on travel, food and wine, home and garden and various other topics. When she’s on the road, she writes a private travelogue. She graduated with honors from Mississippi University for Women with a double major in psychology and social sciences and graduate studies in theology. Her first job during high school was a gofer for a furniture company and her last position before turning to writing was president of the hospitality business owned by Donna and her husband Ray. In-between she’s been in senior management in both the insurance and airline industries. She’s a former board member of Friends of the Library, a member of Sea Island Spirit Writers, and a docent at the Pat Conroy Literary Center. Donna and Ray split their time between their forever home in the South Carolina Lowcountry and their beloved Italy.