Spring in the Cotswolds and Thief’s Mark

With spring here (finally!), I find myself remembering April visits to the English Cotswolds. I couldn’t help but be inspired to write what became Thief’s Mark. It’s an incredibly part of the world, the perfect place for us to find mysterious, enigmatic Oliver York and his farm.

“A crime thriller of rare depth and complexity.” Providence Journal

A murder in a quiet English village, long-buried secrets and a man’s search for answers about his traumatic past entangle FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan in the latest edge-of-your-seat Sharpe & Donovan nov

Light, fluffy scones (a recipe) for Christmas

Daffodils…need I say more? :-)

Our daffodils are poking up out of the mud, a sign of spring on our Vermont hill. I’ll post photos once they’re in bloom. In the meantime, I gathered these photos of daffodils in the Cotswolds (top, near where I placed Oliver York’s fictional country home!), the Netherlands (middle) and Ireland (bottom). They make me smile and I hope they will you, todao, as we go forward into the rebirth of spring. Take care!

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Visiting the English Cotswolds

Whatever time of year, rain or shine, Joe and I have enjoyed our visits to the Cotswolds west of London. Now we need to visit when it snows! Or just go again, anytime. The rolling hills of this beautiful part of the English countryside are crisscrossed with marked trails. I bought a big map–yes, paper–to guide us. We did go astray a few times, but that’s half the fun. Well. Except for that time when I got into nettle. I hadn’t done that since I was a kid and it stung. Our inn was very helpful in providing baking soda, not to mention a terrific gin-and-tonic, and I was back on th… Read More

Images of Scotland

Among the recurring characters in my Sharpe & Donovan suspense series is Oliver York, an English mythologist, martial arts expert, “gentleman” farmer and serial art thief. By the start of Thief’s Mark, now out in paperback, he’s working with MI5. As a boy, he witnessed his parents’ murder and then was whisked off to Scotland by their killers. He escaped, but so did they. Now he’s about to find out the truth about that awful night. 

Scotland is one of the most beautiful places Joe and I have visited, and we are looking forward to a return trip. It̵… Read More

THIEF’S MARK in paperback!

English mythologist and former art thief Oliver York takes center stage in Thief’s Mark, out tomorrow (July 31) in paperback. He meets his match in MI5 officer and garden designer Henrietta Balfour. They’ve known each other since childhood, when Oliver witnessed the murder of his parents and then was kidnapped by the killers and abandoned in a Scottish ruin.

FBI agents Emma Sharpe and Colin Donovan are wrapping up their Irish honeymoon when a break-in at her art-detective grandfather’s Dublin home takes them to England, just as a man bleeds to death on Oliver’s d… Read More

Ah, yes, let it snow…in April

It’s snowing!

Ack. Having lived in the northeast my entire life, you’d think I’d be used to snow in April, and I guess I am–but that doesn’t mean I’m in the mood for it. Since I live in Vermont, I do run into dedicated skiers who love spring snow. I like to get out cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, but right now all I can think about are the crocuses, daffodils and lilies popping up under the snow.

The daffodils in the photo are in the Cotswolds in England, not here. Pretty, aren’t they? I took this shot a few years ago on a good “ramble.”

T… Read More