Until It's Over

by Dorothy Van Soest

Eighty-three-year-old Sylvia Jensen and investigative reporter J.B. Harrell, whose deep emotional bond spans decades, are at a protest against uranium mining on indigenous land. When U.S. Senate Candidate Anthony Jordane begins to speak, Sylvia lunges at him then collapses in a lifeless heap on the floor. J.B., while keeping vigil at her hospital bedside as she slips in and out of consciousness, becomes certain about two things. A long time ago Anthony Jordane did something terrible and for some reason Sylvia blames herself for what happened. But even after he completes a thorough and deeply personal investigation, Sylvia knows there is more to the story. Until It’s Over shows how early trauma can shape life trajectories, how remembering can heal, and how taking action can transform pain into justice.

246 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication April 1, 2026

About the author

Dorothy Van Soest is a writer, social worker, political and community activist, and educator who holds an undergraduate degree in English literature and a Masters and Ph.D. in Social Work. She is currently Professor Emerita at the University of Washington with a publication record of eleven books and over fifty journal articles, essays, and book chapters that tackle complex and controversial issues related to violence, oppression, and injustice.

Her novel, Just Mercy (Fall 2014, Apprentice House) was informed by her widely acclaimed investigation of the lives of thirty-seven men who were executed by Texas in 1997 and inspired by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Victim Offender Mediation/Dialogue program. Just Mercy personalizes the topic of the death penalty through a heart-wrenching and ultimately redemptive family drama of forgiveness, destiny, and the true nature of justice.

Dorothy's second novel, At the Center, is a Sylvia Jensen mystery that grew out of her experiences with the child welfare system. The stories of two boys are intertwined with the secrets and personal demons of the families and the social workers that shape their lives. From the stark poverty of American Indian reservations to the hidden dangers of affluent suburbia, a foster care supervisor and an investigative reporter must unlock the mysteries of their own pasts in order to bring a killer to justice.

Death, Unchartered (2018), the second Sylvia Jensen mystery, grew out of Dorothy's teaching experiences in the Bronx. When a child's skeleton is discovered during the excavation of the site for a new charter school being built in the Bronx, former teacher Sylvia Jensen is sure the remains are those of a former third grade student of hers and that his death was no accident. Driven to find the child's killer, she delves into the teachers' strikes and political protests of the late 1960s and corporate greed of the present.

The second Sylvia Jensen mystery, Nuclear Option, released December 1, 2020, was inspired by her experiences in the nuclear disarmament movement in the 1980s. In 1984 SYLVIA JENSEN was in love with Norton, an atomic veteran and fellow activist in the nuclear disarmament movement. In 2019 Sylvia is seventy-seven and thinking her activist days are behind her when Norton’s troubled son Corey shows up unexpectedly and draws her back into the fight. To save his life and those of countless others, she and her old friend investigative reporter J.B. Harrell must unravel a decades old mystery and face the truth of the nuclear age before it is too late.

Dorothy Van Soest lives in Seattle, Washington. Her website is http://dorothyvansoest.com/