As I sat perusing the choices of mysteries waiting to be opened in my library, my loyal little Shiloh by my side eating up every last bit of attention a treasured terrier could, I gravitated toward a certain storyline in the genre—pets—specifically dogs. The warmth of a good dog, her body radiated heat during a cold spell in North Texas can influence anyone, but I confess, it was the affection of Shiloh’s loving spirit that steered me toward my selections. The first book I chose was a little outside my norm—there are no dead bodies stirring up trouble, (no zombies either) or killers lurking around every corner, but rather, lovable dogs who belong on the couch, like my little girl, instead of being abandoned with the letter Z painted on its fur. (Again, thank my little heart-warming puppy-in-a-ditch rescue story for influencing my choices—Shiloh has never steered me wrong!) Kathleen Y’Barbo, along with her Gone to the Dogs Mysteries that she co-writes with author, Janice Thompson was new to me, but the title and the cover grabbed me, the blurb did the trick to pull me in—and I earned the reward of a great mystery. The two authors take turns…

I am a tenth-generation Texan, but London has held a place in my heart for over ten years. You see, I have a son who has lived there for more than a decade. Thanks to him and his family of three–my granddaughter was born there on New Year’s Eve 2019–the city will always be special to me. There is absolutely nothing like walking those streets with a thousand years of history close enough to touch. It was on a walk with my son through this great city that the stories of nineteenth-century London came alive. With fog shrouding the rooftops of buildings that were hundreds of years old and our footsteps echoing on the cobblestones, I could imagine a time when lack of electricity and CCTV would make this place less than charming on a dark night. Less than safe. What reminded me of my favorite childhood movie, Mary Poppins, quickly became more reminiscent of Jack the Ripper. And then a story was born. Only I just had half the story. The other half came to me several years later when I stumbled across an article in Texas Monthly magazine about a serial killer who rampaged through Austin, Texas in…

Don’t you love summer? The sun, the sand, and oh…the beach reads! Okay, so some of us—me included—do not currently live near a beach. Still…the idea of long stretches of time curled up beneath a beach umbrella (or some other spot of blissful solitude) with nothing to do but read is so very wonderful, isn’t it? Even if none of the above scenarios are plausible in your world, finding a summer beach read is! While my criteria for a summer beach read does not require that the book actually be set in a beach town, I do love reading about these places. As I mentioned, I am currently landlocked due to love, a story for another day (or another book!), but during my childhood and most of my adult years I lived in close proximity to the Texas Gulf Coast. Stories of life in coastal towns are not only part of my past, but they are also part of the novels that fill my bookshelf. Because I loved to read about these locations, I decided to create a series of stories set at the beach—Vine Beach, to be precise—so I could also write about them. Working on all three of…