icon caret-left icon caret-right instagram pinterest linkedin facebook twitter goodreads question-circle facebook circle twitter circle linkedin circle instagram circle goodreads circle pinterest circle

Extraordinary Stories That Touch The Heart And Challenge The Mind

SYMPTOMS OF DEATH FREE ON KINDLE

The dinner party was singularly unremarkable until the lunatic arrived.

That’s the opening sentence of SYMPTOMS OF DEATH, the first book in the Dr. Alexandra Gladstone Mystery series.

It’s free all this week on Kindle!

Of course I’m hoping that if you read the first book, you’ll want to read the second, AN IMPROPER DEATH as well as the third, HALF A MIND TO MURDER.

After that, you’ll have to wait a little while until I finish the fourth, which I’m calling THE QUEEN’S CRIME.

At the moment, SYMPTOMS OF DEATH is number two on the Kindle best seller list for historical mysteries. I know from experience that can change in a matter of minutes and will have changed several times by the time you read this, but I’m enjoying it while I can and hoping to find others out there who want to read the series.

Here’s the set-up for the book:

A gathering of nobles at the country estate of the Fifth Earl of Dunsford, and a killer stalks the guilded halls. Each of the guests has a secret vendetta against the Earl, but when he’s found murdered in his bed, the lords and ladies flee, placing the blame on a servant. The village’s lady doctor, Alexandra Gladstone, discovers evidence to the contrary and finds herself trapped in a web of scandal, deceit, and ghostly appearances that could cost her her life.

How I came to write this series, set in England in the 1880s, while I am a resident of the American West in twenty-first century, began when an editor asked me to write a historical mystery series and added, “You can write about any place you want except the American West.”
Apparently the reason for that was that “Westerns” had passed their prime and were no longer selling. Never mind that there’s much more to the West thnt gun slingers and saloon girls. And so much for the old adage, “Write what you know.”

Truthfully, though, being something of an Anglophile, I did write something I know. Although, getting to know the details of nineteenth-century medicine has been a real adventure. An added bonus for me is looking at all the tattered covers of antique medical books that line my bookshelves now.

Only a bibliophile would understand that.  Read More 
Be the first to comment

FEAR THE EDUCATED WOMAN

Author Paula Paul
When my character Alexandra Gladstone would have been growing up, too much education for females was frowned upon. It was thought a woman or girl was “unfeminine” if she was overly educated.
While girls from the middle class, as Alexandra would have been, could be educated at home and perhaps later sent away to  Read More 
Be the first to comment