Death in Bagheria is the third book in the Serafina Florio historical mystery series. It takes place on the gold coast of Sicily in 1870....

Ash Bogle is a character in distress. He is eternal, of course, being a character. But in life, you’ll find him in the pages of The Girl...

What makes us keep reading a story? Our interest, of course. And if the story is constructed in an interesting way, there are elements of...

Fina Fitzgibbons is the main character of my Brooklyn mystery series. She’s a private investigator, a twenty- or thirty-some character...

The Brooklyn Drop is Fina’s fourth mystery. Like all her books, it’s a standalone. Summary: In the middle of a wintry night, private...

Only the dead leave Brooklyn. I should know, my husband and I lived there for fourteen years, and a part of me has never left. They were...

The Serafina Florio mysteries take place in nineteenth-century Sicily during a rabid time——the start of home rule when everyone and...

In this scene from Death of a Serpent, Serafina discusses the madness of the killer. Muttering something about being late for dinner,...

I’m a mystery writer, a serial killer of sorts, and one of my victims is a Brooklyn landlord. He’s not at all a likable character. His...

The Brooklyn Drop is Fina’s fourth book. One of its characters, Edna O’Toole, works at a fictitious airport in New Jersey, the scene of a...

Too Quiet in Brooklyn is the first in an eight-book series. It stars Fina Fitzgibbons—now in her late twenties, for we mortals who keep...

Many years ago I was commissioned to do a painting of the Lower East Side. Thus began my love affair with that part of Manhattan that...

Helen Ludlow is a character that’s been floating around my head for twenty years or so. Every once in a while she creeps up on me when...

For me, plotting is like hanging up a large load of laundry. Picture it—a beautiful day in June. The air is fresh, the breeze is flappy,...

Don Tigro’s Backstory Don Tigro is the villain in the Serafina Florio historical mysteries. His story begins in Death of a Serpent,...

One of my characters, Serafina, has a mother, Maddalena who survives her own death. This, according to Serafina. One of her friends, as...

The Girl with the Golden Earrings, a stand alone, is the seventh book in the Fina Fitzgibbons Brooklyn mystery series. Summary When Ash...

Missing Brandy is the second book in the Fina Fitzgibbons mystery series. It’s the story of a missing teen, Brandy Liam. In the prologue,...

Here’s an excerpt from a short mystery I wrote a few years ago, Death of a Sad Face. It stars Serafina, midwife, widow, and sleuth. Her...

The year my mother was born, newsboys were wearing masks in Manhattan. To stop the spread of influenza, I reckon. I wonder if masking...