Dolores Stewart Riccio is an American author who has made her mark in various genres, including cookbooks, poetry, and mystery/thriller novels. She was born in Boston and spent her formative years in Pembroke, a small New England town on the South Shore of Massachusetts. This town would later become the setting for many of her Circle of Five series of novels.
Riccio began her writing career as a poet, using her maiden name, Dolores Stewart, for her poetry publications. She has had hundreds of poems published in various literary journals such as The American Scholar, The Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, Poetry, and others. Her two collections of poems, "Doors to the Universe" and "The Nature of Things," have been published by Bellowing Ark Press.
In addition to her poetry, Riccio has also written several cookbooks, using her married name, Dolores Riccio. These cookbooks, which have a health theme and a Mediterranean influence, include "Superfoods:300 Recipes for Foods that Heal Body and Mind," published by Time-Warner in 1992. She has also co-authored two books about ghosts, "Haunted Houses U.S.A" and "More Haunted Houses."
Riccio later turned her attention to fiction, writing ten Cass Shipton Adventures, set in Plymouth, as well as two stand-alone novels, "The Ghost Who Came Home from the Auction" and "Spirit." The Cass Shipton books, which touch on many of her lifelong interests, such as food, herbs, pets, poetry, and all things metaphysical, feature a circle of Wiccan women who solve crimes. After the loss of her husband in 2011, Riccio moved to Plymouth, a place that holds great significance for her. She currently resides in the Avalon Apartments in Plymouth, where she continues to write her thrillers and mysteries.