Biography
A storyteller at heart, Struna bases her tales on the history, myth, and legends of Cape Cod and her own personal experiences. She created a contemporary character, amateur sleuth, Nancy Caldwell, the vehicle that moves the story between time periods in alternating chapters.
Struna's first two successful novels, The Old Cape House and The Old Cape Teapot were pirate adventures based on the 1717 Cape legend of Maria Hallett and her pirate lover Sam Bellamy, captain of the wrecked ship Whydah. Her research took her on a ten-year journey trying to decipher the facts from the legend and then another three years of crafting her story.
Struna's imagination took flight once more when she discovered a turquoise 1940 Fiesta-ware cup buried in her Cape woods, it ignited an idea for a story about the forties on Cape Cod and Old Hollywood, and her third novel, The Old Cape Hollywood Secret, was born.
With critical acclaim and multiple national awards, Struna keeps her readership anticipating the next Old Cape story, this time featuring Alaska and Provincetown in the late 1800s through the turn of the century. The Old Cape Blood Ruby is now available.
Recently her fifth historical novel, The Old Cape Map, was published in April 2024. The storyline uses dueling timelines to take you back to 1900 and forward to the present-day in Millbury, MA and Cape Cod. It's a tale filled with mystery, suspense, and Spanish gold.
Struna is a member of International Thriller Writers; Member in Letters, National League of American Pen Women; Past President of Cape Cod Writers Center; Sisters In Crime, National, New England and writes a blog about the unique facts and myths of Cape Cod.