SMITH, Lora R(oberts) 1949- (Lora Roberts, Leigh Roberts)

PERSONAL: Born December 29, 1949, in Marshall, MO; daughter of Howard (a teacher) and Evelyn (a teacher) Roberts; married Jerry Smith (an engineer), March 28, 1970; children: Matthew, Jeremy. Ethnicity: "White." Education: University of Missouri—Rolla, B.A., 1971. Politics: "Mine." Religion: "Also mine." Hobbies and other interests: Gardening, jewelry-making, reading.

ADDRESSES: Office—P.O. Box 957, Palo Alto, CA 94302. Agent—Ruth Cohen, Inc., P.O. Box 2244, La Jolla, CA 92038. E-mail—myslora@pacbell.net.

CAREER: Writer. Worked in public relations and technical editing.

MEMBER: Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime (member and past president of of local chapter of board of directors).

WRITINGS:

Revolting Development, Perseverance Press (Menlo Park, CA), 1989.

UNDER NAME LORA ROBERTS

Murder in a Nice Neighborhood, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1994.

Murder in the Marketplace, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1995.

Murder Mile-High, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1996.

Murder Bone by Bone, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1997.

Murder Crops Up, Fawcett (New York, NY), 1998.

Murder Follows Money, Ballantine Books (New York, NY), 2000.

Another Fine Mess: A Bridget Montrose Mystery, Perseverance Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 2002.

The Affair of the Incognito Tenant: A Mystery with Sherlock Holmes, John Daniel & Company Books (McKinleyville, CA), 2004.

ROMANCE NOVELS, UNDER PSEUDONYM LEIGH ROBERTS

Moonlight Splendor, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1983.

Love Circuits, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1984.

Siren Song, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1985.

Birds of a Feather, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1986.

Head over Heels, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1987.

The Wishing Pool, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1988.

A Piece of Cake, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1990.

Built to Last, Harlequin (New York, NY), 1992.

WORK IN PROGRESS: The Problem of the Contentious Jewel.

SIDELIGHTS: Lora R. Smith held several jobs in the field of writing and editing, including writing romance novels under the pen name Leigh Roberts, before turning to writing mysteries, most of them under her other pseudonym of Lora Roberts. They feature either Liz Sullivan, a character a Publishers Weekly contributor called "peripatetic, cynical, emotionally cautious," or Bridget Montrose, a homemaker turned sleuth and novelist. Many of Smith's mysteries are set in her longtime home of Palo Alto. "I set most of my books where I live, to avoid all that tedious research but my fictional Palo Alto shares only physical characteristics with the real one, and perhaps a certain mind-set," said Smith on her "Lora Roberts" Web site.

Smith has written six mysteries in which Liz Sullivan must solve the case. Throughout the six novels, beginning with Murder in a Nice Neighborhood, Sullivan not only solves mysteries but goes through a series of events that also change her life. "Liz Sullivan is the kind of engaging, self-reliant female sleuth that will be sure to inspire a following, and hopefully more adventures to come," wrote a contributor to Publishers Weekly of Murder in a Nice Neighborhood. In Murder Crops Up, Sullivan becomes embroiled in solving the murder of two fellow community gardeners. In a review in Publishers Weekly, a contributor noted, "Liz is a capable and likable character and Roberts has managed a clean and cozy atmosphere of compost-loving gardeners with the seedier side of life." By the sixth Liz Sullivan mystery, Murder Follows Money, Liz has evolved from living out of her Volkswagen bus to having a real house, with a dog and a boyfriend. The plot for this case revolves around a celebrated food celebrity whose real-life personality is the exact opposite of her kindly television persona. When one of Hannah's assistants is murdered, Liz, who has been working as a media escort for Hannah, becomes a prime suspect.

Smith once told CA: "I didn't apply myself to more lucrative disciplines in school, convinced that I would be a writer. When it was time to go to work, I discovered that English majors had few choices—clerical work, public relations work, or actually attempting to write for a living. I did all those things, and I am still writing, although more slowly to accommodate the editing work that actually pays the bills.

"Like many another author, I began writing romances. It was a good way to be paid for learning to write novels, but my true love has always been the mystery genre. I grew up in a house full of siblings, arguments, and books; more than half of those books were mysteries. My mother was hard-boiled (Mickey Spillane, Brett Holiday), my dad was more moderate in his gore requirements (Erle Stanley Gardener, Agatha Christie). I read all of these, horrifying my mother by asking, when I was eleven, 'What is this cognac they drink all the time?' My tastes ran with my dad's, however. I liked the novel of detection, the amateur sleuth, the comfortable confines where violence can be hidden, the placid surfaces with raging currents beneath them.

"Those who love crime fiction divide it into many sub-genres—espionage, private investigator, police procedural, cozy. Mine, I like to think, are semi-cozy. There is violence, but it is not dwelt on in loving detail. There is humor, but that is not the focus. The characters, as in all good fiction, carry the story, but the story makes definite progress toward a satisfying resolution.

"Ah, that resolution! That is one of the reasons why I love reading and writing mysteries. One reviewer once damned a book of mine because the ending was too tidy. Well, I like that tidy ending. As a child, I loved the books in which the characters, though tossed by turbulent action, ended up tucked into bed, snug and safe for the night. I want my characters to enjoy that same feeling at the end of the book, after I have put them through harsh and uncomfortable action, made them confront their weaknesses and exploit strengths they didn't know they had. It is not, perhaps, literarily fashionable, but it sure is great to read. Since I write for entertainment, I am not going to worry my pretty little head over whether the novel is literary or not. I just want my readers to be glued to the pages, unable to sleep until the end, when they shut the book with a sigh of satisfaction and tuck themselves away in their burrows—er, beds."

With 2002's Another Fine Mess, Smith reintroduces Bridget Montrose, the character she created in her first mystery Revolting Development. "I always wanted to write another book from Bridget's point of view, but then Liz Sullivan popped up in my mind and I wrote about her for a while instead," said Smith on her Web site. She also noted, "But in the back of mind, I knew I would write more about Bridget some day." In Another Fine Mess, Bridget Montrose has written a successful novel but finds that she is facing writer's block. She attends a prestigious writers' retreat and, when one of the writers there is murdered, Bridget is on the case. "Fast and upbeat, but not much substance or mystery," noted a reviewer in Kirkus Reviews. However, Rex Klett, writing in Library Journal said that the author "handles the classic murder-in-a-microcosm with panache, revealing snippets of surprise as various attendees compare stories."

"I love writing mysteries," Smith said on her Web site. "It's like letting your life get wildly out of control and then—presto!—imposing order on it."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, review of Another Fine Mess, p. 998.

Library Journal, Rex Klett, review of Another Fine Mess, p. 218.

Publishers Weekly, May 9, 1994, review of Murder in a Nice Neighborhood, p. 68; February 12, 1996, review of Murder Mile High, p. 74; July 27, 1998, review of Murder Crops Up, p. 74.

ONLINE

Lora Roberts Home Page,http://www.nmomysteries.com/lora/ (October 9, 2002).