Dear Author: Romance Book Reviews, Author Interviews, and Commentary

Dear Ms. Franklin,

Last year we were introduced to Vesuvia Adelia Rachel Ortese Aguilar, the “Mistress of the Art of Death.” Brought from Salerno to help solve a brutal series of murders, she proved so helpful that Henry II, exercising his royal right to run things whatever way he damn well wants, decided to keep her in England in case he might need her skills again.

It’s taken 18 months but now Henry’s snapping his royal fingers in the form of one Bishop of Saint Albans, aka Adelia’s former lover and father of her bastard child. Henry’s beloved mistress Rosamund the Fair has been poisoned — oops no, make that killed, and the blame is being flung straight at his Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who recently escaped from a palace prison in Henry’s French holdings and is headed back across the channel. Henry and Eleanor have their marital problems, Henry and his sons have their filial problems and if Adelia can’t figure out who really did Rosamund in, and Henry punishes Eleanor leading their sons to rebel against him, England will have Civil War problems. Again. And no …

Dear Mr. Mills,

Your first novel takes place in the summer of 1947 on Long Island, in and near the Hamptons, where the wealthy have summer homes. Not far from the Hamptons is Amagansett, a working class community. The two communities coexist side-by-side, but not without tension. Through political maneuverings in the state government, the wealthy are trying to take the fishing rights away from the local fishermen.

As the book opens two Amagansett fishermen, Conrad Labarde and Rollo Kemp, pull up something unexpected in their net: the body of a young woman in her twenties.

Both Conrad and Tom Hollis, the police officer who is sent to the scene, notice that the dead woman drowned while still wearing her earrings. And that makes both of them suspect foul play.

After investigating for a bit, Hollis identifies the woman as Lillian Wallace, daughter to a very wealthy businessman. Lillian’s grief-stricken brother Manfred is a man with political ambitions.

Why and how was Lillian murdered, and can the crime be proved? The main characters are Tom Hollis and Conrad Labarde, who both want to know the answers to these questions.

Hollis is a former New York City …

Dear Ms. Jeffrey,

When I started reading your book, I was so glad that I work with a woman who’s owned horses for years and who has taken me out to ride her horses many times because I immediately caught one of your first clues that something wasn’t right about the crime scene. “Whoohoo,” I said. “I know why the sheriff and the EMT are giving each other significant looks as they realize that the victim, an experienced horsewoman, was wearing flip-flops in a riding arena.” And when I told my friend about this, she was so proud of me! From that point on, I had a good feeling that you were going to do right by us readers.

Sheriff Rusty Joplin realizes early on that this is going to be one of those mornings when he wishes he could turn the clock back and start it over. By chance his experienced assistant catches the call made for an ambulance to be dispatched to the home of the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in west Texas. And when he gets there, he discovers that the …