DAPHNE, Ala.— The Jubilee City is the backdrop to Janis F. Kearney’s first novel, “Once Upon a Time There Was a Girl: A Murder in Mobile Bay,” a murder mystery set right here on the Eastern Shore.

Kearney—former publisher of the Arkansas State Press Newspaper and personal diarist to two-term president Bill Clinton—penned the former commander-in-chief’s   biography, “Conversations: William Jefferson Clinton…from Hope to Harlem.”

“I wanted to do it in the south,” Kearney said, of why she chose to set her latest literary offering in Daphne.

“I ended up with Daphne because I had read about a (local) female medical examiner and I thought, ‘That’s a character I want to use in the book,’” she said.

Kearney became enamored of the area after visiting a college friend who was living in Mobile at the time.

“People think of the area as exotic,” Kearney said.

The novel—published by Arkansas-based independent publishing house Writing Our World Press—is loosely based on an actual murder case that took place near Gould, Ark., a small town where Kearney grew up.

Just like in her new book, a young black woman in that town was killed by two white males.

“I got close to (the victim’s) family,” Kearney said. “I owned a newspaper and became pretty close to that case.

“Over the years, I went back and forth on how I was going to write it,” she said.

Setting the story in a similar southern town helped Kearney finish the project, she said. Daphne reminded her of her hometown in many ways, particularly due to its community mindedness.

“When the murder took place, it kinda tore at the community’s seams,” Kearney said. “The process made me realize that I should leave that story where it lay, that I was in fact honoring that family in another way by telling a completely fictional tale about a murder in a special town.”

“Once Upon a Time”—set in 2005—portrays Daphne as a city having survived the civil rights movement and now growing exponentially due to an increased manufacturing industry.

In the story, Angel Jackson—a beautiful, young black girl—is brutally murdered by two white brothers.

Five main characters are connected by the storyline: Police Chief Tom Mallory, Deputy Police Chief Andy Cochran, Clarice Jackson—Angel’s mother, Mayor Mavis Simmonds and Pastor Ted Manley.

The plot builds while allowing each character to reconcile his or her own prejudice and decide whether to receive redemption.

Kearney has written the Clinton diary and a personal memoir titled “Cotton Field of Dreams” and has co-authored corporate account manager Frank K. Ross’ “Quiet Guys can do Great Things, Too: A Black Accountant’s Success Story.”

Kearney’s nationwide book tour begins at 6 p.m. Thursday at the West Regional Branch of the Mobile Public Library.