First print-published by Wildside Press in 2000Claire came to the English village to find her best friend, Melinda, who'd vanished afterperforming in a play which re-creates a seventeenth-century witchcraft trial.What she found was a murder mystery-and a man. A man who, like her, is trapped between memory and desire.The play takes place at the manor house where the protagonists lived and died, a house wherethe past is still a haunting presence. Did Melinda ask too many questions about the village's tragic history? To find her, Claire, too, must ask questions. What she learns is that everyone in the village is playing a role-not just in the melodrama, but in real life.Claire must walk a fine line between repeating the past and surviving the present. For if she puts one foot wrong, she won't be seeing the future at all, let alone spending it with the man she's not only come to trust but to love. After starting out in science fiction and fantasy, Lillian Stewart Carl is now writing contemporary novels blending mystery, romance, and fantasy, along with short mystery and fantasy stories. Her work often includes paranormal themes. It always features plots based on history and archaeology. While she doesn't write comedy, she believes in characters with a sense of humor.Her fantasies are set in a mythological, alternate-history Mediterranean and India. Hercontemporary novels are set in Texas, in Ohio, in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia, and in Englandand Scotland.Of her Shadows in Scarlet, Publishers Weekly says: "Presenting a delicious mix of romance andsupernatural suspense, Carl (Ashes to Ashes) delivers yet another immensely readable tale. Shehas created an engaging cast and a very entertaining plot, spicing the mix with some interesting twists on the ghostly romantic suspense novel."Of her Lucifer's Crown, Library Journal says: "Blending historical mystery with a touch of the supernatural, the author creates an intriguing exploration of faith and redemption in a world that is at once both modern and timeless.Among many other novels, Lillian is the author of the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron cross-genremystery series: America's exile and Scotland's finest on the trail of all-too-living legends. Of The Secret Portrait, Kirkus says: Mystery, history and sexual tension blend with a taste of the wild beauty of the Highlands. Of The Burning Glass, Publishers Weekly says: "Authentic dialect, detailed descriptions of the castle and environs, and vivid characters recreate an area rich in history and legend. The tightly woven plot is certain to delight history fans with its dramatic collision of past and present."With John Helfers, Lillian co-edited The Vorkosigan Companion, a retrospective on Lois McMaster Bujold's science fiction work, which was nominated for a Hugo award.Her first story collection, Along the Rim of Time, was published in 2000, and her second, TheMuse and Other Stories of History, Mystery, and Myth, in 2008, including three stories that werereprinted in Year's Best mystery anthologies.Her books are available in both print and electronic editions, and her web site ishttp://www.lillianstewartcarl.com
