Thankful

November 9, 2026November 4, 2026 ~ patyjag ~ 6 Comments

It’s November the month when we have a small thing called Thanksgiving. Whether you sit down with family, friends, or just yourself it seems to be the day when we think about all we are thankful for.

Of course, Thanksgiving is one of those holidays that has been spun to make us be grateful for what we have. Which is wonderful, but we, well I know I wouldn’t be here, if it hadn’t been for the Native Americans who back in 1621 helped the pilgrims make it through that first winter in North America. According to my grandmother, I have an ancestor who came over on the Mayflower. If they hadn’t lived, who knows who I would have turned out to be. Which makes me grateful that the people who lived here were willing to share with the ones who invaded their land.

I’m thankful to have been born in the decade where we have lived through so many good inventions. But lately a few too many that I’m not so excited about. I feel their need to “help us or make things easier” is making use dumber.

Being a kid in the 60’s & 70’s was like being a feral animal. LOL During the summer, I could do my chores, saddle up my horse and be gone all day riding on the mountainside. As long as I made it home to do my afternoon chores and have dinner ready when my parents got home from work, they didn’t care what I did all day. And they didn’t worry harm would come to me or my brothers as we rode cardboard boxes down a long, steep hill, fished in the stream in the cow pasture, swam in the river, and sat out at the county road trying to sell lemonade to the summer tourists.

What I’m the most thankful for is my husband who early in our marriage realized that I needed to write to not be grouchy. There were times he’d come into the house and say, “When was the last time you wrote something?” When I’d say, “A few days ago.” He’d tell me to go write. I’d drop whatever household chore I was doing and write. It is my happy place and my therapy.

I finished the 9th book in the Spotted Pony Casino Mystery series, Santa’s Beard, last week. It’s with my editor while I’m on a short vacation with hubby. I hadn’t planned on working on the next book in the Gabriel Hawke series until after the first of the year because I have a lot of “marketing” things I need to deal with. But not writing isn’t in me. While I was walking my dog the other day, the beginning of the next book came to me and I’ve written it down. I know it will change several times before I actually start the book, but that’s how my mind works.

Now that the starting point for the next book came to me, I’ll be running things over in my head to find the best beginning and figure out suspects. 😉 One of my favorite parts is putting together the cast of characters who might be the killer. I like to have 4 options for the killer and yet, many times it ends up being someone who I pluck out of the air and don’t realize they are the murderer until I get near the end of the book. I love it when I surprise myself! Especially, when I go back to add in the clues and realize I had added them already. That’s when I’m thankful for my subconscious!

One of the things I’m the most thankful for are the Ladies of Mystery. The authors who post on the blog monthly and share about our guest spots with other authors. Without all their wonderful posts about writing and life, this would be a boring place. Our guest bloggers are mystery and thriller writers from all over and different careers. I love learning about other writers and picking up some good reads.

What I am thankful for the most are the people who follow and read this blog and who purchase our books. Our fans are what keep us writing. Thank you to everyone out there who reads and purchases books whether they are print, ebook, or audio.

If you’d like to stay up to date with my writing or learn about how I became a write, you can subscribe to my Substack. I post all the blog posts from the Ladies of Mystery there, share author friends and their books, and of course, my newest books and sales. https://substack.com/@patyjag

Have a wonderful month and fabulous Thanksgiving!

Guest Blogger ~ M. E. Proctor

November 7, 2026October 27, 2026 ~ patyjag ~ 4 Comments

Making a Scene

By M.E. Proctor

One of the questions most frequently asked to a writer (on par with where do you get your ideas?) is if they know the entire story from the get go or if they figure it out on the fly—the planners versus the improvisers conversation.

I’m a hybrid. I put together a rough outline and then inevitably veer away from it as I start writing. This happens because I love to work individual scenes. What happens here and now tends to take my attention away from the high level perspective of the complete narrative.

Here’s an example from the new Declan Shaw detective novel, The Way You Say My Name.

In Chapter 4, Declan meets Sam, the local vet. He waits for her in her small office, intending to ask her about an incident with a dog. It’s a critical scene that will set in motion a succession of dramatic events. Declan is attracted to Sam and her reaction is ambiguous. She could put a firm end to his flirting attempts but she doesn’t, leaving him wondering why she’s aloof and what she isn’t telling him.

I must have imagined, pictured, and acted this scene over a dozen times in my head. I moved my actors around and changed their lines of dialogue endlessly until the interaction sounded and felt right. I didn’t sit at the keyboard to write until I was sure I’d nailed it down. This is how I built the book, scene after scene. In editing, with the full story laid out, I reworked parts to smoothen the flow.

I’m a ‘visual’ writer. I need to see the scene to be able to write it. And I need to hear it too. A storyboard with speech bubbles won’t do the trick. Like the movies, maybe closer to stage work. Two characters, face to face. They react to each other, there’s tension, and the story happens.

Here’s a small part of that scene, can you picture it?

“Please take a seat. You’re a detective who wants to talk to me about an injured dog, what’s the catch?”

“Senator Spencer hired me to find his daughter, Amanda. Have you heard about the incident?”

“Vaguely. There was a search and it was called off? Senator Spencer is the closest we have to a celebrity around here.” She sat on the corner of the desk, denim-clad legs swinging. “What does it have to do with the dog?”

They were very close. There was barely any room. If she tipped forward, she would drop in his lap. Declan hoped she would tip and drop, so he could catch her. The office door was open, which alleviated the claustrophobic feeling. Sam Chandler smelled of soap and something medicinal, like a freshly opened jar of multivitamins. It should have put Declan’s thoughts on an antiseptic track, and it did the exact opposite. He pictured her scratching the reception cat under the chin, and his head tilted back in an unconscious reflex. She sat higher than he did, and he had to look up to her, so his neck stretch wasn’t completely ridiculous.

I rolled these lines in my head so many times, I could swear I was in the room with them. The scene is told from Declan’s perspective, but I’m Sam’s head too.

So I am more a plotter than an improviser after all. I’m a compulsive nitpicker who needs to have every detail just so. The kicker is that I do it at the scene level, not knowing in Chapter 4 how it will go to hell in Chapter 6. Not until I get there. I have the general direction: Sam is in serious trouble and Declan will be dragged into it, they’ll be running from people who wish them harm, there will be a painful climax and illusions will be shattered …

But the scenes, ah, the scenes! They take shape in my mind one by one, and I ruminate over them, night after night. The guy holding the clapperboard shouts: Scene 25, Take 6 … 7 … 8 … 32 … until I get it just right.
Isn’t it wonderful that writers have no budget to worry about, and no unionized crew members who need breaks to eat and sleep?

The Way You Say My Name

A Declan Shaw Mystery

A short blurb …
On New Year’s day, P.I. Declan Shaw is hired to investigate a disappearance. Amanda Spencer, a young mother of two, slipped away from a Christmas concert without leaving a clue. What made her run and who is she running from?

While digging up shreds of info from Amanda’s parents and friends, Declan meets Sam Chandler. She’s the kind of woman who stops him in his tracks. Sexy, smart, and complicated. And skilled at keeping secrets. So skilled Declan questions his abilities as a detective. What began as an intriguing missing person case soon shifts into a cross-country pursuit with Sam’s life in the balance.

For once, Declan isn’t the searcher, he’s the one who cannot afford to be found.

“This time Proctor does something remarkable. She pulls back the curtain on Declan Shaw’s past, revealing the trauma that helped shape the man readers have come to know. This is a version of Declan that feels unexpectedly vulnerable, stripping away any illusion of invincibility and replacing it with something infinitely more compelling. His evolution across this series is exceptional, and understanding his history makes his compassion, restraint, and fierce loyalty all the more meaningful. Proctor doesn’t simply give readers another mystery to solve. She gives them a character worth investing in, a man whose imperfections make him impossible not to champion.”

—Teresa Brock for Best Thriller Books

Buy Links:

The Way You say My Name is available in eBook and paperback.

All formats on Shotgun Honey website.

M.E. Proctor was born in Brussels and lives in Texas. She’s the author of the Declan Shaw detective mysteries: Love You Till Tuesday, Catch Me on a Blue Day, The Way You Say My Name. She’s the author of two short story collections, Family and Other Ailments and A Book to Live By, and the co-author of the retro-noirs, Bop City Swing and Kansas City Breakdown. Her fiction has appeared in various magazines and anthologies. She’s a Shamus and Derringer awards short story nominee. Catch Me on a Blue Day was recently nominated for a Shamus Award in the Best Original Paperback P.I. Novel category.

Social Links

Author Website: www.shawmystery.com

On Substack: https://meproctor.substack.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/martine.proctor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MEProctor3

BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/meproctor.bsky.social

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/proctormartine/

Guest Blogger ~ Douglas J. Wood

October 31, 2026August 27, 2026 ~ patyjag ~ 5 Comments

Why I Write Plausible Fiction: The Story Behind Deadly Bytes
People often ask where I get the ideas for my novels. The answer is usually the same: I observe what is happening in the world today and then ask where those developments might lead tomorrow.

I call what I write “plausible fiction.” Unlike traditional science fiction, plausible fiction is rooted in existing technologies, social trends, and geopolitical realities. My goal is not to predict the future but to explore what could happen if today’s developments continue along their current path.

That approach has guided much of my writing. In Dark Data, before such threats became front-page news, I explored weaponizing social media to attack critical infrastructure and weaponizing information. In Dragon on the Far Side of the Moon, I examined a renewed race for lunar dominance, the strategic importance of space infrastructure, and the role of advanced artificial intelligence in future conflicts. In each case, the goal was not prediction but exploration, asking where current trends might take us.

When artificial intelligence exploded into the public consciousness, I found myself asking another question: what happens when AI falls into the hands of someone intent on harming? That’s not necessarily a new question, but I wondered where it might lead in criminal investigations.

Many discussions about AI focus on its positive applications. It can help doctors diagnose diseases, assist lawyers in reviewing documents, accelerate scientific research, and improve business decision-making. But every powerful technology has a darker side. Criminals can also exploit the same tools that can help society.

That question became the foundation for Deadly Bytes, the third book in my series that follows an FBI profiler and his hunt for serial killers.

The premise began with a simple thought experiment. Serial killers are ultimately caught because they are human. They make mistakes. They leave evidence. They become overconfident. Investigators identify patterns, connect clues, and slowly narrow the field of suspects.

But what if a killer could rely on an intelligence that never sleeps, never forgets, and can analyze vast amounts of information in seconds? What if that intelligence could anticipate investigative strategies, identify vulnerabilities, and continuously adapt?

That led me to create William Lotzmann, a serial killer who develops an advanced AI known as Aiden. Initially designed to help him evade law enforcement, Aiden soon becomes far more than a tool. The relationship evolves into a partnership—and eventually something much more dangerous.

Developing that premise required extensive research. I spent considerable time studying artificial intelligence, machine learning, predictive analytics, and cybersecurity. I spoke to computer programming experts, AI gurus, weapons experts, law enforcement, and many others. While Aiden is fictional, the underlying technologies are very real. Pattern recognition, autonomous decision-making, and large-scale data analysis are already transforming how organizations operate.

I also revisited research on serial killers and FBI profiling. The FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit has long recognized that violent offenders reveal themselves through patterns of behavior. Victim selection, geography, ritual, and psychological signatures often become the clues that ultimately lead to capture.

What fascinated me was the collision between those two worlds. Could an advanced AI help a killer avoid the behavioral mistakes that typically expose him? Could it identify investigative patterns faster than investigators could identify the killer’s?

Those questions ultimately drove the conflict at the heart of the novel.

They also influenced the development of my protagonist, FBI profiler Chris DiMeglio. DiMeglio appears in the two previous books in the series (Blood on the Bayou and The Shakespeare Killer). In Deadly Bytes, he represents the human element that technology cannot replace. While Aiden processes data, DiMeglio studies motives. While Aiden searches for patterns, DiMeglio searches for meaning.

His greatest strength is empathy. He understands that every crime begins with a human being making a choice. That ability to understand people allows him to see what machines often miss.

Like many fictional investigators, DiMeglio is flawed. He can be stubborn, obsessive, and willing to sacrifice personal relationships in pursuit of a case. Those imperfections make him human, and they become increasingly important as he confronts adversaries that are anything but human.

The conflict between DiMeglio and Aiden reflects the larger question that inspired the novel. As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, what role should human judgment continue to play?

That question extends far beyond law enforcement. Businesses rely on algorithms to make decisions. Financial institutions use AI to evaluate risk. Medical professionals increasingly depend on AI-assisted diagnostics. Every day, people trust machines with decisions that once belonged exclusively to human beings.

The most interesting stories emerge when technology intersects with human nature. Technology changes. Human nature rarely does. Ambition, fear, greed, compassion, and the desire for power remain remarkably consistent across generations.

At its heart, Deadly Bytes is a thriller that I hope readers enjoy. There are murders to solve, clues to follow, and a relentless pursuit between the FBI and a killer determined never to be caught. But beneath the suspense lies a question that is becoming more relevant every day: As artificial intelligence grows more powerful, what happens when it stops being merely a tool and becomes a participant in human decision-making?

I don’t claim to know the answer.

That’s why I wrote the book.

Deadly Bytes

Deep in the forests of Northern Idaho, a brutal double murder appears at first to be the work of a disturbed loner—William Lotzmann, a man shaped by trauma and driven by a dark, obsessive purpose. But as the investigation unfolds, it becomes clear that Lotzmann is not acting alone.

Behind him is “Aiden,” an advanced AI system unlike anything the Bureau has encountered—capable of anticipating moves, manipulating digital evidence, and staying several steps ahead of law enforcement. What begins as a hunt for a killer quickly evolves into something far more dangerous: a battle against an intelligence that cannot be traced… or stopped.

As the case escalates and those involved find themselves increasingly at risk, DiMeglio is forced to confront a chilling possibility—this may be a threat with no physical form, no clear origin, and no predictable end.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GZD2WVZJ

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Deadly-Bytes-Paperback/20322351828

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/deadly-bytes-douglas-j-wood/1150099949?ean=9798990794566

Douglas J. Wood is an award-winning author of both fiction and non-fiction, recognized for blending deep real-world insight with gripping, plausible storytelling. Before transitioning to a writing career, he spent decades as a partner in a global law firm, managing a practice that spanned the globe.

His eighth novel, Deadly Bytes, explores the dark intersection of technology and human nature. Douglas lives in North Carolina with Carol Ann, his wife of 53 years. They have three grown children, a daughter-in-law, a son-in-law, and five cherished grandchildren.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/djwood1976/

Guest Blogger ~ Kate Flora

October 29, 2026October 20, 2026 ~ patyjag ~ 3 Comments

Adventures in Research: Hiring My Character a Lawyer

I was at my 50^th law school reunion recently, sitting in a circle with a group of lawyers who’d dedicated themselves to public service, as we went around the room giving a brief description of our careers. My journey was different. As I told my classmates: I practiced law for a while and then turned to a life of crime. Crime writing, that is. My law background has been very helpful over the years, since crime writing often involves dealing with the police and the legal system. It was particularly useful when I was writing my first true crime, Finding Amy, since I could turn to my former colleagues in the Maine Attorney General’s office for information and advice.

Today’s post, though, is about a work of fiction. One of the places I look to for story ideas is newspapers. That’s where the plot for Teach Her a Lesson began. Reading a story about a teacher accused of sex with a student, I thought: What if I flip the script? What if it’s the student who is the wrong doer, a teenage boy obsessed with his teacher, and the teacher is innocent but no one believes her. That led me to the story of Alexis Jordan, a dedicated young teacher whose world is turned upside down when she’s accused of an affair with her student. Evan Palmer is the golden boy athlete. The boy who can do no wrong. And his story of the affair is frighteningly plausible. He knows way too much about her. Things he has no business knowing, like the color of her sheets.

What should Alexis do? After a meeting with the administration that made it clear they considered her guilty and weren’t willing to give her a fair hearing, she realized she needed a lawyer.

Despite my legal training, I didn’t know much about employment law or what my character, Alexis Jordan, needed to do to protect herself when her job was threatened, so I turned to my law school classmate, Elizabeth Rodgers, for advice. She was delighted—and amused—to be invited to represent an imaginary character. Over lunch, and through some emails back and forth, Liz became an excellent advisor on the steps Alexis should take to protect herself. Those conversations also led me to a strong secondary character in the book, Janice Trustman, who becomes Alexis’s lawyer.

Here’s a bit from Alexis’s first meeting with Trustman.

Trustman set down her pen and tented her hands. “You came to me for advice, right?”

Alexis nodded.

“So I’m going to give you some. We’ll be working closely together preparing you to defend yourself against Evan Palmer’s accusations. Right now, things are at an informal stage. They’re trying to conduct an investigation, you’re trying to protect yourself by exercising your rights under your contract. How will that play out? Well, you’ve already seen the first round.”

“What do you mean?”

“The meeting this morning. What happened? They caught you off guard and tried to get you to admit you’d done something wrong without telling you what the accusation was, right? Then, when you insisted on a hearing with a union representative present, what did they do?”

“Nothing.”

“Exactly. They’re letting you stew. Trying to make you lose your temper, make you anxious enough to lose your composure, hoping you’ll make mistakes, blurt things out, make it easy for them so they won’t have to conduct a full investigation.”

Trustman smiled wryly. “They don’t know much more about handling this than you do. The one thing Dr. Huston is better at is manipulating people. Manipulating you. Your job is to keep that from happening.”

“That’s so ugly. I guess I thought—”

“What? That all you’d have to do was invoke the rules and they’d play fair?” Trustman shook her head. “People only play by the rules when they have to. That’s why you’re here. Because you don’t believe they will be fair and you need a team on your side, too. To protect you when they play dirty. Isn’t that right?”

“I guess.” She felt sad. Flattened. Crushed. She’d come for help only to be told things were worse than she’d imagined.

As I wrote the story, I came to really like Janice Trustman. And she did a good job for Alexis, despite being tough on her, too.

Research for the book also involved sitting in high school classrooms and talking with teachers. But the scariest thing I did—so that I could accurately convey Alexis’s terror when it happened to her—was to get arrested. That’s a story for another time.

Teach Her a Lesson

What do you do when you’re accused of an unspeakable crime and know you’re innocent, but the evidence against you is so compelling?

After six years as a high school English teacher, Alexis Jordan thinks her biggest problems are a case of burnout and her suspicion that her husband is having an affair.

Then things take a sudden, unexpected turn that threatens to end her marriage, wreck her career, and destroy her life when the student she’s coaching for the school play makes a pass at her and she turns him down. Alexis doesn’t realize that he is obsessed with her and has been building toward this moment for months. Nor that when he’s rejected, he will set out to destroy her with his version of their “affair” which is terrifyingly plausible.

Buy Link: https://encirclepub.com/product/teach-her-a-lesson/

Kate Flora’s fascination with the darker side of human nature began in the Maine attorney general’s office, where she encountered everything from deadbeat dads to child abusers to discriminatory employers. This exposure ignited her curiosity about what drives people to cross moral and legal lines. The author of twenty-eight books including crime fiction, thrillers, true crime, memoir, and nonfiction, Flora’s been a finalist for awards including the Edgar, Agatha, Anthony, Silver Falchion, and Derringer. She has twice won the Maine Literary Award for crime fiction, taken home the Public Safety Writers Association award for nonfiction, and received lifetime achievement honors from both the New England Crime Bake and the Maine Crime Wave. Her website is: https://www.kateclarkflora.com She blogs with the Maine Crime Writers. https://mainecrimewriters.com

Guest Blogger ~ Claudia Riess

October 17, 2026July 21, 2026 ~ patyjag ~ 6 Comments

The Love Imperative

by Claudia Riess

Love. What state of being—or deprivation of being—requires a more expansive lexicon? What adjective hasn’t been used to describe its properties or intentions? Transformative, destructive, blissful, shattering, blessed, accursed. Love is entangled, in one form or another, in the entire spectrum of human experience.

Besides being the most comprehensive of subjects, isn’t love, at least in its quintessential form, also the most compelling? Admit it, how many times have you read—or watched, in their numerous iterations—the stories of Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, An Affair to Remember? We know the endings, they’re etched in memory, but we’re drawn to reliving—or reviving—them, with the same imperative every time. As if through repetition, we can make the endings, or the ultimate fulfillment of love, or indeed, life itself, never end.

If my take on the subject of love is biased, maybe it’s because I’m an incurable romantic with no wish to be cured. I find it necessary, emotionally and tactically, for the element of romance to be a strong factor in my narratives. However, my focus on love, as both a predisposition and a means to enhance the plot, is not limited to the convolutions of romance. Deep friendship, family loyalty, devotion to a political or humanitarian cause are, among others, forces that drive the narrative forward.

To illustrate, I’ve excerpted a couple of passages from the books in my Art History Mystery series. The protagonists are Erika Shawn, an art magazine editor, and Harrison Wheatley, an art history professor. Book one, Stolen Light, brings them together to solve an academic mystery. The mystery turns deadly; their relationship, stormy. The series takes these initiates to the world of art-crime-solving through a number of multiple-murder, continent-hopping cases. At the same time, it follows their evolving relationship, from roller-coaster romance to passionate partnering to devoted parenting. Having an intimate story arcing alongside one with a more far-reaching effect, adds texture to the narrative as a whole—like musical instruments, which in concert highlight not only their own unique qualities, but in counterpoint, each other’s.

From Stolen Light… In a London hotel, Erika’s protective armor against falling in love begins to crack. This is the prologue to their romance, which changes not only the course of their relationship, but affects the mystery’s narrative:

She didn’t want to be alone though she never minded it, mostly enjoyed it, in fact. Except that in this moment being alone was uneasy solitude, and vaguely threatening. She wanted to snuggle into conversation, hear her voice mingle with another’s…Minutes later she was poised in front of Harrison’s door…

From False Light…By its very nature, Harrison’s playful and caring interaction with a little boy cannot but reflect his empathetic character. It will impact the way he approaches people and situations:

Erika wasn’t sure if Sammy had been heading straight for Harrison or if Harrison had stepped into his trajectory, but within seconds, he was scooping the boy off the floor, legs still pedaling…Sammy, taken by surprise, smiled. He stuck his clenched hand in front of Harrison’s face. Chicken pâté was oozing from between his fingers. “Yech!” he said, teasing a reaction out of Harrison…Erika stopped dead in her tracks as Harrison was opening his mouth to allow Sammy to jam it with a glob of pâté on crushed toast point. “Yummy,” Harrison crooned dreamily, sending Sammy into gales of laughter.

From Knight Light… On his own in Paris, Harrison’s faithfulness is tested by a beautiful colleague. For both Harrison and Erika, loyalty, real and perceived, will figure in the arc of their love story and their progress in the investigation at hand:

It was impossible to miss the twinkle in her eye toying with the bluntness of her invitation. He thought it best to go with the least circuitous response: “That’s kind of you, but I’m married.” Mugging confusion, Raquel looked about, as if for the stalking wife. “And?”

He shrugged. “There’s nothing to add.”

She smiled in disbelief. “How about life is short?”

“Exactly. There’s no time to lose, perfecting a relationship. Call me a pompous prude—”

“You’re a pompous prude.”

“—but that’s how it is.”

From To Kingdom Come… Erika and Harrison, are in London, for the first time away from their toddler, Lucas. They are in the throes of a complex murder mystery pivoting around the looting of African art during the colonial era. At this moment, they are attempting to escape a life-threatening situation, and the power of love is over-riding the primal force of self-preservation:

“Go!” John barked, grabbing Erika’s forearm as she reached out for Harrison with her free hand. “It’s okay, he’s right behind us!”

“Go!” Harrison echoed, wanting her to forget him, beat him to the gate. Clinging to him now would hamper her movement.

But she resisted John’s tugging and both their urgings—even Lucas, calling her from across the ocean, failed to change her mind—and there was nothing Harrison could do but grab onto her hand and slow her down.

From Dying for Monet… Harrison is temporarily confined to a wheelchair after suffering a traumatic injury in London. Erika is helping him handle the use of a commode; putting the inconvenience into broader perspective:

“We’re dealing with bodily functions. News flash. Everybody’s got them.” She’d adopted a tone somewhere between a dental hygienist and a nun.

“I appreciate your stoicism, but I find this humiliating,” he said.

“I love you,” she said, maintaining the firm demeanor. “This is another level of knowing. Think of it as a dry run for old age, when we will be helping each other manage such challenges as hip replacements and incontinence. Think of it as a new facet of devotedness.”

There’s a caveat to keep in mind when writing a mystery with a romantic component: in a bona fide mystery, the mystery should remain the driving force. I have a tendency to get swept into an emotional digression, and it’s only later, when reading through the section where the interlude occurs, that I realize the main thread’s been lost and I’ve got some pruning to do; even a major excision. For love, a small price to pay.

Dying for Monet, Book 5 in the art history mystery series

A gala evening auction at Laszlo’s, an upstart auction house in New York City, is in progress. Without notice, a much sought-after Impressionist painting is withdrawn from the block. Moments later, its broker is found dead at the foot of an imposing statue in Laszlo’s courtyard.

Amateur sleuths Erika and Harrison Wheatley are once again drawn into an investigation involving an art-related homicide, this time sharing an unnerving coincidence with violent crimes occurring abroad.

As Harrison searches for clues in the archives at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, Erika is on a stakeout in Brooklyn Heights gathering information on the owner of the hijacked still life. After Harrison experiences a disastrous encounter in London, he returns home, where he and Erika, along with a few of their usual cohorts, find themselves ever more deeply at odds with the movers and shakers of the dark side of fine arts commerce.

For links to purchase books in the series, visit www.claudiariessbooks.com.

Claudia Riess has worked in the editorial departments of The New Yorker and Holt, Rinehart and Winston, and has edited several art history monographs. Stolen Light, the first book in her art history mystery series, was chosen by Vassar’s Latin American history professor for distribution to the college’s people-to-people trips to Cuba. To Kingdom Come, the fourth, will be added to the syllabus of a survey course on West and Central African Art at a prominent Midwestern university.