Lieutenant Dalton Gray first made his appearance in my book, The Cameo Clue. Attracted to my heroine, Katherine, he lost out to a brawny Michigan militiaman, Garth MacKay. That was bad for Dalton but good for his creator. I could use him in another book set in the fictitious town of Maple Creek where again he lost the girl to a small town newspaperman.
Here is what Katherine sees as she visits Maple Creek’s annual apple fair:
As I scanned the crowd, looking for a friendly face, I noticed the tall, lean policeman who stood under a traffic light directing vehicles onto a side street. With his grim expression, he appeared to be anything but friendly. In his dark uniform, he was unusually handsome, though, and well worth a second look””or even a third.
He raised his muscular arm and turned his head slightly to wave a red Taurus to the left. His face was as lean as his body, chiseled in sharp attractive angles, and his smooth dark brown hair gleamed in the afternoon sunlight. One strand fell forward on his forehead from a center part, brushing the top of his eyebrow.
Sometimelater, Iwrote Love Deadly Love,whose title comes from a haunting, old Cajun folk song. Again my setting is Maple Creek, Michigan. Lieutenant Dalton Gray was still on the force, and this time he had better luck. The heroine, Linnet, returns his affections.
I like to recycle romantic heroes, like to let them live to love another day.
My today blog is about Love Deadly Love, newly available as a March selection for the Harlequin Worldwide Mystery Bookclub, and I’ll start with covers. The Hilliard and Harris had a lovely cover, worthy of a fictitious house called Valentine Villa. The background was pink. Taking center stage was the façade of a white Victorian house with a red heart window.
Enter the Harlequin edition. A heart-shaped cherry tart with dead black flies lying near it, one of them right above my name. At first I was appalled, but everyone seems to like that cover, and Love Deadly Love is one of my favorite books. I hope more readers will discover my book in its new edition and overlook the flies.
Besides Lieutenant Gray finally getting the girl, the story is about love that comes when we least suspect it and sometimes turns deadly. (Hence the cherry tart, which is incidentally laced with arsenic.) Since this is also a novel of romantic suspense, it’s also about secrets and murder and the disturbing tale of a rowdy high school class that totters on the brink of deadly.
Lovers of romance will be happy to know that the book’s secondary hero, Ned Glint, already has a place in my next Maple Creek book. Ned was inspired by a teacher I once knew. There’s nothing like recycling old boyfriends.
Here is an excerpt from Love, Deadly Love:
The phone was ringing.
Its incessant shrill sliced through the afternoon silence that hung over Beechnut Street. In the thick June air, the sound was unnaturally loud, as nerve-wracking as any sudden disturbance in a quiet place.
One more annoyance, I thought as I turned the key in the lock of my house. Then, What phone?
The only phone in my newly-purchased Victorian cottage in Maple Creek was a vintage black dial tone landline, mounted on the bright yellow kitchen wall. It had been disconnected, or so the realtor, Dinah Deering, had said.
Therefore it couldn’t ring. Still, it did. Three times; four times; five . . .
Turning the knob, I pushed open the front door and dashed through the dining room to the kitchen. As I reached for the receiver, the ringing stopped, leaving a lingering echo in the close air.
Feeling foolish, I said, “Hello . . . Hello?â€
No one answered. The echo faded; welcome silence returned. I heard the muted hum of the refrigerator, the faint drip drip from the faucet, and the ticking of the clock in the dining room. All familiar sounds. I was home—Home Sweet Home—in my own house, a mile from the clamor and chaos of Louisa M. Alcott Middle School. Nothing could touch me here.
I replaced the receiver and brushed a speck of dust from its top with my finger. How could a disconnected, dead phone ring?
The answer was simple. Dinah Deering was wrong.
I had never questioned her. I’d never even taken the receiver off the hook. In the age of cells and blackberries, landlines were extraneous. I’d only given the phone a passing thought. When I painted the kitchen a softer shade of yellow, I would remove it and fill in the hollowed-out space. Until then it could stay.
Besides, who would call Violet Julaine, the previous owner? She was dead, murdered a long time ago in this very house. Anyone wishing to contact me knew my cell phone number. I’d probably just missed a telemarketer.
Setting my purse and school books on the table, I told myself, It’s Friday. Forget the phone.
But it wasn’t that easy. Wouldn’t Dinah know whether or not the phone was working?
I lifted the receiver again and listened. There was no dial tone. Nothing but dead air. Well, then, Dinah was right.
Still puzzling over the mystery, I climbed the stairs to my bedroom to change out of my white blouse and navy skirt and reached for a silky peach dress with an empire waistline. For the first time all day I felt comfortable and cool.
The rest of the afternoon was mine.
I’d be happy to answer any questions about Lieutenant Dalton Gray, Love Deadly Love, or about anything.
I’ll be here all day. Just leave a comment.
Dorothy
I’m anxious to read this book but I have the one with the pretty cover. I kind of like the dead flies. I think death and dead flies go together. LOL Maybe with all my down time sitting around at bus stops waiting for my son, I can finally get to read this book. I’m just wondering if I should read The Cameo Clue first.
Like Diane, I like the dead flies. It indicates that the tart isn’t as tasty as it appears, and maybe just a bit lethal — if lethal can be “just a bit”.
I like the way you bring characters back into other stories, and yet they’re not part of the Jennet Greenway series.
And I’m looking forward to your next book.
Diane,
Maybe you should read The Cameo Clue First. A Shadow on the Snow takes place in another town, but all the rest of my Hilliard and Harris books are set in Maple Creek, so you’ll be seeing some of the same characters even though the books aren’t part of a series.
Dorothy
You have beautiful dogs and all of the photos are nice. I like the one titled Where the big dogs are
Your book sounds really good too
sounds like a great book! as well as The cameo clue both are now on my to be read pile! good luck with your new release!! wishing you many sales!
LT. DALTON SOUNDS GOOD!!
I CHOSE MINE DOROTHY BUT IT WAS HARD AS THEY ALL ARE ADORABLE