Romance novelist suspected of slaying chef husband at Oregon Culinary Institute

A woman accused of fatally shooting her chef husband at the Portland culinary school where he worked penned romance novels filled with steamy plot twists and larger-than-life characters who dodged danger and found fortune and love.

Nancy Crampton-Brophy's books featured "rugged men, strong women and a good story," the author wrote on a personal website. Their paperback covers often depicted handsome heroes — and at least one heroine — with chiseled bodies and dark coiffed hair.

A synopsis of her 2015 novel "The Wrong Husband" tells of a woman who escapes the clutches of an abusive and powerful spouse during a shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea and who later falls for one of the men sent to find her.

Police on Wednesday arrested Crampton-Brophy, 68, who they say gunned down her own spouse Daniel Brophy at the Oregon Culinary Institute on June 2.

Brophy, 63, was found wounded in a kitchen area that morning and later died at the scene.

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