Guest Post: The Course Of Untrue Love Run…To Murder by Jacqueline Diamond

Please welcome Jacqueline Diamond back to the blog with news of her latest book…

The Course Of Untrue Love Runs…To Murder by Jacqueline Diamond

Did a mistake from your past ever come back to haunt you? If you’re like most of us, those old missteps may nag a little, or perhaps serve as lessons. They don’t normally turn us into murder suspects.

In my fourth Safe Harbor Medical Mystery, The Case of the Long-Lost Lover, my hero isn’t that lucky. Here’s the blurb: When Dr. Eric Darcy is suspected of killing his former girlfriend, the young widowed physician teams with his PI sister-in-law to clear his name. The investigation gains even more urgency when he learns that his long-lost lover may have given birth to his child. Can Eric find out what happened to the missing woman before danger closes in on a daughter who might be his?

My inspiration for the series was the desire to write about a small-town doctor who solves crimes that involve his (or her) patients and friends. My main character is an obstetrician-gynecologist, which for many women today is the equivalent of the old-fashioned general practitioner.

If I’d been more practical, I’d probably be writing about Erica rather than Eric, since women sleuths are popular. However, I’ve discovered in the course of writing more than 100 novels that, for me, the writing process is a partnership between the conscious and subconscious. I don’t just pick one from column A and one from column B.

Instead, the doctor who grew in my mind is a dedicated, outspoken, sometimes short-tempered guy with a troublesome yet endearing family. His closest friends are his late wife’s sister—a private investigator who’s also his biggest critic—and a homicide detective with a snarky view of doctors.

Each of the four mysteries can stand alone, although there are continuing threads. The latest, The Case of the Long-Lost Lover, explores part of Eric’s past that he’s put out of his mind, a woman named Nicole with whom he had an affair during medical school.

Confronted by her disappearance under circumstances that appear to involve him, he must sort through conflicting clues and unexpected emotions. What did happen to Nicole? Is her emotionally unstable sister telling the truth about what she knows? And is Eric a father, something he’s longed for?

In real life, I’d hate to have my past bite me like this. But in fiction, it proved exciting to write and, I hope, entertaining to read!

Jacqueline Diamond © 2019

A former Associated Press reporter and TV columnist, USA Today bestselling author Jacqueline Diamond has sold 100+ mysteries, medical romances, Regency romances and romantic comedies to publishers including Harlequin, St. Martin’s Press and Five Star Mysteries. Jackie, who currently self-publishes her Safe Harbor Medical Mystery series, lives in Southern California.  https://jacquelinediamond.net/