I have long been a fan of historical mysteries. Captain Lacey, Sebastian St. Cyr, Melanie and Charles Rannoch, Lady Emily, Veronica Speedwell… My shelves runneth over with such bounty, to say nothing of the works of Dame Agatha or Sir Arthur. If you’ve read my Jaded Gentlemen series (Thomas, Matthew, Axel, Jack), you can see my mystery inclinations finding their way onto the romance pages. Three out of four Jaded Gentlemen involve a magistrate trying to solve a puzzle, and in the fourth, the protagonists are also wrestling with the whodunnit dilemma. I do believe Axel is my first and (so far) only murder mystery!

The urge to develop my own Regency sleuth has only grown stronger as my romance backlist has grown longer. For that debut series, Our Heroine had to be smart, dealing with personal issues, well connected but also an outsider… I had to equip her with a pair of worthy accomplices, and because love conquers all, her stories had to have strong romantic threads. Enter Lady Violet Belmaine, whose eight Lady Violet Mysteries gave me many hours of writing joy.

I was so inspired by her ladyship, in fact, that I began another Regency series, The Lord Julian Mysteries. His lordship is a blend of superpowers (former reconnaissance officer for Wellington), and human failings (a little problem with his memory, some big problems with his past). Julian has a lot of work to do if he’s to overcome the challenges he faces, and yet, every puzzle he solves, every investigation he completes shows him not only the solution to somebody else’s problem, but also another insight into Julian himself. Am I having fun, or what!?