Betty Brandt Passick is an independent author, inspirational speaker, and teacher. She grew up in the small town of Fairbank, Iowa (population 1,000), where few people would expect the idea for a gangster series, yet this is where she drew inspiration for her premier historical crime novel, Gangster in Our Midst, Bookkeeper, Lieutenant, and Sometimes Hitman for Al Capone (2017). The novel tells the neglected fact-based story of an Italian-American man who came to her hometown in the 1920s, where he remained off and on for the next sixty years. During the pandemic, she returned to ‘Oxbow’ to write The Black Bag of Dr. Wiltse, Murder on the Prairie (2021), which tells an earlier piece of the gangster story – the backstory of the family who built Hotel Wiltse, a prominent setting in Gangster in Our Midst. Dr. Wiltse, who is attracted to murder investigations, finds his black bag allows him into places where others may not go, and soon finds himself at the center of horrific murders. Betty uses a unique cross-genre that utilizes elements of fiction and nonfiction to tell her stories. Both novels have won Indie Book awards. A third novel in the series will follow in early 2025.

“Writing our family’s book of history, We Are Eight, a Memoir (2015) I discovered my love for in-depth research,” she says. The 400-page book took 5 years to research and write. She teaches “Writing a Memoir” workshops.

A decade ago, Betty launched her career as an author after retiring from a Fortune 500 company. In addition to writing novels, her poems, short stories, and novellas regularly appear in anthologies and magazines. She writes a “Gangster” Blog; a column for her hometown newspaper, the Fairbank Islander; plus in 2023 she launched the annual Wapsie Writing Contest to encourage adults, teens, and children (in particular) to write creatively. She’s a member of several mystery crime writers’ organizations, and has a BA degree in Public Relations.

Betty is married, and she and her husband enjoy rescuing Bichon Frise dogs — “though truth be told,” she notes, “the dogs have really rescued us…leading us to explore greater depths of patience and kindness.” 

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