What inspires you to write mysteries, as opposed to any other type of novel? When I was young, I had grandiose ideas of writing The Great American Novel, only I hadn’t written much at that point, and I hadn’t gone through much formal training (no MFA here!). So I thought, quite naively, let me try writing a mystery novel first. Those are easy. Right. Not so much, as it turned out. My first attempt took over three years, and will never be seen, nor should it. But I learned much in the doing of it, especially as to what I needed to know in order to write. The second mystery novel involved much more research, took three and a half years to finish — and sold. I’ve stayed with mysteries primarily because I enjoy being in a world where problems can actually be solved. I’ve also written one werewolf book, and a non-genre novel that we are sending around.   Your Sparks & Bainbridge series is set in the 1940s. Why this time period? The actual marriage bureau started in 1939, but I thought the post-war period was fascinating for all of the changes that were happening in London, and…