Dublin It was the thirtieth of July, 1658, the summer of her twenty-third year, and she couldn’t have asked for a better day on which to start the Plan. The morning had dawned with a brilliant sunrise, scattering the heavy rain clouds that had long plagued the city, filling the sky, the very air around them, with a burst of renewing light. Seven years. Seven long and difficult years she had been waiting for this day. This fated day. And now it was upon them. She wanted to leap with joy and sing with the knowledge of it. Even the air seemed to smell crisper, and the rhododendrons lining the park walkways along St. Stephen’s Green flourished in bright and brilliant bloom as if celebrating the fact that soon she would have her due revenge. It was market day, and the area around Merchants’ Quay was, as usual, a scene of chaos and confusion. Everyone, it seemed, had emerged from beneath their rooftops to revel in the unusual summer clemency. Dockworkers called out to young ladies as they strolled between shop stalls surveying the goods for sale. Hucksters pushing crude wooden carts filled with every sort of notion cried out…

1–What is the title of your latest release? JANE AND DAN AT THE END OF THE WORLD 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? A couple out to dinner celebrating their 19th wedding anniversary find themselves in the middle of a hostage situation right out of the pages of a novel. Her novel, to be exact. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I knew I needed to create an isolated restaurant that was off the beaten path, where diners could realistically be taken hostage and there wouldn’t be help for miles. I kept picturing a coastal cliff and liked the idea of the restaurant being frequented by celebrities, so California north of LA made sense to me. 4–Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life? Absolutely. Although Jane is neurotic as I am at times, so we’d likely get on each other’s nerves. 5–What are three words that describe your protagonist? Mid-40s, anxious, mom 6–What’s something you learned while writing this book? That creativity ebbs and flows. And when it ebbs, it’s important to be kind to yourself and find ways back to your creative center. For me, that was taking…

1–What is the title of your latest release? AND THEY HAD A GREAT FALL 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? For fans of Robinne Lee’s The Idea of You, a debut contemporary romance about a celebrity and a single mother who push and pull against each other as they teeter between a carrying on a secret affair and living an authentic life. 3–How did you decide where your book was going to take place? I really believe the location can be its own character. The setting of Copenhagen was selected because it reflected my couple – Kat and Jake. Kat and Jake are what I call a Monday/Friday couple. Kat is all business, practical and controlled.  She’s not grumpy, but she certainly has little time for frivolity and does not take risks.  Jake is the exact opposite – he’s fun and takes life in the moment.  He’s not all sunshine, but he believes life is one big exploration.  At times they spar because they can’t really understand each other, but at other times, the very reason they are attracted to each other is their differences. Copenhagen was a very intentional choice because Danish design is all about Form…

For 20 years and more than one million books, readers have watched our Coffeehouse Mystery characters face down cold-blooded criminals, fight past personal failures, and survive the dazzling lights and dark alleys of New York City with the strength of camaraderie and good strong coffee. Why did we last this long? Our readers tell us one reason is because our stories are much more than murder-mystery puzzles. From the publication of our very first Coffeehouse adventure, ON WHAT GROUNDS, our cozy crime fiction has been character driven. Watching our amateur sleuth, Clare Cosi, navigate the peaks and valleys of her personal and romantic relationships, run her charming historic shop, and wrangle her quirky crew of baristas is as much fun as watching her follow clues to solve a perplexing crime. Another reason we’re still going strong is our series’ setting. When we conceived our Coffeehouse world, we took an offbeat approach to cozy crime fiction, which traditionally sets its stories in small towns and villages. We set our series in a village, too, the charming, historically preserved neighborhood of New York’s Greenwich Village. This cheeky choice of setting a cozy series in the Big Apple was quickly embraced by readers and even helped…

The ground was still damp from recent rains when I recognized the ridge where Gitlam and I had rescued the sand kittens. It had been over fifty years since I fled Egypt with my family, leaving me and Gitlam among the very few who remembered crossing the Sea of Reeds. At first, I thought we’d come to the wrong place. The lake was as I remembered, but there were only a few tents on the low hills around it. Instead, there were various permanent residences up on the hillside terraces, many sharing adjacent walls. Those located closer to the lake had olive trees on their terrace level to facilitate moving the harvest to the oil presses, while those higher up the hill had vineyards. Some structures were made of stone, others from mud and straw bricks like our ancestors had slaved to make in Egypt. Gitlam and I stood still in confusion. Some of these must house our adult children and grandchildren who’d remained in Kadesh Barnea while their fathers battled the Canaanites, but I didn’t recognize anyone. Suddenly we were surrounded by children yelling, “Grandfather, Grandmother.” Two of the younger girls grabbed my hands and began pulling me up…

How would you describe your family or your childhood? I never had a childhood. When you’re an orphan, abandoned on the hardscrabble streets of the worst slum in Regency London, you grow up fast—or you don’t survive. I learned to be tough as nails and very good as picking the pockets of rich gentleman . . . a skill which led to an encounter that changed my life, and put my toughness to a more honorable purpose. Where do you live? I tend to move around a lot, but my home—when I’m there—is Mrs. Merlin’s Academy for Extraordinary Young Ladies, though I have to admit, the name makes me and my fellow students laugh. I mean, we are extraordinary, but we’re certainly not ladies! We’re highly trained spies . . . and assassins, if need be. (You really don’t want to mess with us.) What do you do for a living? In a nutshell, I’m called upon to undertake very dangerous and difficult missions to keep King and Country safe from its enemies. While the aristocratic young ladies of London are dancing at Almack’s or flirting in the drawing rooms of Mayfair, I’m matching wits with diabolically clever villains. That…

I love a book filled with mystery, thrills, or suspense. I also love romance. Having a writing career that lets me write all of it? Priceless! I’ve written romantic suspense with undercover operatives and dark secrets as HelenKay Dimon for years. I started writing darker thrillers (no romance!) under the name Darby Kane and have published five of them so far. But for the last few years, I’ve also branched out into what I’d call the romantic caper.  These are lighter mysteries with some humor and romance and lots of family messiness. My newest, THE USUAL FAMILY MAYHEM, is about a woman who approaches her grandmother and her grandmother’s “best friend” with a proposition about their dessert business not knowing Grandma has a secret side venture—making poison pies to get rid of bad men. Oops! Kasey, who hasn’t figured out what she wants to do with her life, and her long-time, totally secret, opposites-attract crush, Jackson, join together to figure out what’s going on and then try to avoid disaster.  Books where the couple tries to solve a mystery while pretending the attraction for each other isn’t about to knock them over are great fun. Good luck running from your…

RHYS: I’m really excited to be celebrating the publication of this book on March 11. It’s called SILENT AS THE GRAVE and it’s Molly Murphy book number twenty-one. How about that! Little did I imagine when I had an idea for a book about a young immigrant woman on Ellis Island back in 2001 that she would not only survive but thrive, marry, have a family and go on to an exciting life. When other series can get dull and stale, new life was breathed into this one by bringing my amazing daughter Clare on board as my co-writer, and above all as my researcher. CLARE: I had always been a big fan of this series. I knew my mom had put it on hold as she couldn’t write three books a year and was constantly getting emails asking when the next Molly book was going to come out. So I volunteered to join her and write the books with her. RHYS: It was a successful partnership from day one, to the extent that I can’t tell you who has written a particular scene in the book. Clare started out with a great feel for Molly’s voice and some brilliant…

by Misty Simon The luck of the Irish is coming your way this month and have I got some awesome reads for you! I’ve never been to Ireland, so I adore being able to read about locales that I might never have the chance to visit. Don’t get me wrong, if I could swing it, I’d be on the next plane. But because that is currently out of my price and vacation range, let’s dive into some living vicariously through great fiction. First up is a great book by Carlene O’Connor MURDER IN AN IRISH GARDEN (An Irish Village Mystery Book 11). This is pretty far into the series at book 11 but this series is such a great read all the way through. Talk about twisty mysteries and endings to die for. Throw in a deadly garden competition and I’m your girl! Next, we have EXECUTION IN E (A Gethsemane Brown Mystery Book 5) by Alexia Gordon. Long ago I professionally trained to sing opera so I have a particularly soft spot classical music and by extension for this series. It’s a little older but totally worth picking up now. Ghosts, exes, and influencers? Oh my… This is a…

1–What is the title of your latest release? GOLDA’S HUTCH 2–What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book? Craig Schumacher is not your typical executive. With a gentle spirit and a morning ritual that includes serene meditation alongside his cherished rabbit, Golda, Craig values connection over competition. Yet, beneath his calm, polished exterior lies a secret he’s worked hard to keep hidden—one that could change everything. Enter Byron Dorn—Craig’s employee and chaos incarnate. Crude, impulsive, and driven by envy, Byron is elated when he and his wife stumble upon information that he believes could unravel Craig’s life. But when Byron ropes another couple into his schemes, things become a lot more complicated. Because Craig isn’t the only one with a secret. And as the stakes rise, everyone will have to decide what they’re willing to sacrifice to get what they want—and when they’re willing to walk away. Set against the dynamic backdrop of San Francisco, this gripping psychological novel weaves a complex tapestry of deception, envy, desire, politics, and power. It compels readers to confront a haunting question: How well do you really know the people you encounter every day? 3–How did you decide where your book was going to…