“A wonderful choice…recommended for all fiction collections.”—Library Journal

A FATAL WALTZ

Author Tasha Alexander Broadens Lady Emily Ashton Character

Tasha Alexander has developed into a highly acclaimed storyteller of historic fiction with her captivating series featuring Lady Emily Ashton. In her latest entry, A FATAL WALTZ (Harper/Morrow) set for early June release, it was critical that the author continue “to grow the character.”

After her widely praised debut, AND ONLY TO DECEIVE and last year’s sequel, A POISONED SEASON, in A FATAL WALTZ Alexander’s growing legion of readers will see a definite broadening of the Lady Ashton character. Publishers Weekly called Alexander’s new entry “…charming…the book’s entertaining voice and accurate period detail will seduce most readers.”

“As you keep writing about characters you have to get to know them better,” said Alexander. “Emily’s world is expanding and she encounters things so beyond her previous experience. In the first two books she experienced an intellectual awakening and had to try to reconcile this with the society in which she lives. Now the world is getting much broader for Emily.”

In A FATAL WALTZ, Emily once again faces intrigue, murder, romance, and is confronted with an Austrian countess once the love interest of her fiancé Colin Hargreaves. Along the way Alexander’s appreciation and knowledge of historical facts and landmarks are woven into the story set in Victorian period.

“This book has a little darker side than the first two,” Alexander pointed out. “But it all connects, which is important when telling a story. Certainly the Emily-Colin relationship is more intense and faces some challenges. Now we also see pieces of Colin’s life before he met Emily.”

And readers will see where it takes the couple.

Alexander, a Notre Dame graduate, also wrote the novelization of the Academy Award-winning movie ELIZABETH:THE GOLDEN AGE, which starred Cate Blanchett and Clive Owen.