Dr. James Shrader has spent a lifetime telling stories through music, theater, teaching, and now fiction. His career has encompassed work as a composer, university administrator, conductor, stage director, professor, and operatic tenor.
He earned the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Bradley University, the Master of Music in Opera degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music, and the Doctor of Philosophy degree in Fine Arts (conducting) from Texas Tech University. His doctoral dissertation, The Choruses in Mozart’s Opere Serie: Practical Performance Possibilities, reflected a career-long interest in the intersection of music, drama, and storytelling.
Shrader served as Professor of Music and Head of the Department of Music at Valdosta State University and was formerly chorus master for Tulsa Opera, where he prepared nine productions for live performance and subsequent rebroadcast on National Public Radio stations. As a composer, he has published choral works with Colla Voce, Inc., and his compositions and commissions have included additional choral music, a ballet score, and a series of brief chamber operas.
In retirement, Shrader turned his lifelong fascination with character, drama, and storytelling toward mystery fiction. His Shadrach Posey Mystery Novellas center on Shadrach Posey, a retired city detective whose plans for a quieter life have an inconvenient habit of being interrupted by mysteries that demand his attention.
The series begins with Ellencrest, in which Posey arrives in a seemingly peaceful river town only to find himself drawn into a murder investigation involving old secrets, powerful families, and a community whose past is not nearly as settled as it appears. Additional Shadrach Posey mysteries will continue to expand Posey’s world and the people who inhabit it.
Shrader is also developing Grainger & Gizmo, a series of shorter mysteries that exist within the Shadrach Posey world as stories written by Posey himself. They follow private investigator Miles Grainger and his Welsh Terrier, Gizmo, whose ordinary canine curiosity sometimes has an extraordinary way of bringing overlooked details to Grainger’s attention.
After a career spent bringing stories to life on the concert and operatic stage, James Shrader has simply changed the medium. The characters are now on the page—but the fascination with drama, mystery, and the art of telling a good story remains.
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Keep up with James Shrader, the Shadrach Posey mysteries, new releases, and occasional news from the world of Ellencrest.