THOMPSON, Victoria (E.)

PERSONAL: Married; children.

ADDRESSES: Home—PA. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Penguin Group, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014. E-mail—vestinpa@aol.com.

CAREER: Romance and mystery author. Seminar leader and frequent speaker at writers' conferences.

MEMBER: Novelists, Inc. (founding member and past president), PennWriters (cofounder and past president), Romance Writers of America (former board member), New Jersey Romance Writers (cofounder and first president).

AWARDS, HONORS: Nomination, Edgar Allan Poe Award, for Murder on St. Mark's Place.

WRITINGS:

fiction

Cry Wolf, Zebra (New York, NY), 1995.

From This Day Forward, Zebra (New York, NY), 1997.

Also author of Texas Treasure, 1985; Texas Vixen, 1986; Texas Blonde, 1987; Texas Triumph, 1987; Angel Heart, 1988; Rogue's Lady, 1988; Bold Texas Embrace, 1989; Beloved Outcast, 1989; Playing with Fire, 1990; Fortune's Lady, 1990; Wild Texas Promise, 1990; Sweet Texas Surrender, 1991; Blazing Texas Nights, 1992; To Love and Honor, 1995; and Wings of Morning, 1996.

"tates of texas" series; novels

Wild Texas Wind, Kensington (New York, NY), 1992.

Winds of Promise, Kensington (New York, NY), 1993.

Winds of Destiny, Kensington (New York, NY), 1994.

Winds of Fortune, Kensington (New York, NY), 1995.

"gaslight mysteries" series; novels

Murder on St. Mark's Place, Berkley Prime Crime (New York, NY), 2000.

Murder on Gramercy Park, Berkley Prime Crime (New York, NY), 2001.

Murder on Washington Square, Berkley Prime Crime (New York, NY), 2002.

Murder on Mulberry Bend, Berkley Prime Crime (New York, NY), 2003.

Murder on Marble Row, Berkley Prime Crime (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: The author of many historical romances and mysteries, Victoria Thompson has written about a professional wolfer in the Old West and a woman who survives a rape and a forced marriage in U.S. Civil War-era Texas, among many other settings. More recently she has focused on late-nineteenth-century New York City, the setting for her successful "Gaslight Mysteries" series, which began in 1999 with Murder on Astor Place, a novel dubbed "one of the most spellbinding debuts I've ever come across" by Romantic Times contributor Toby Bromberg.

Murder on Astor Place introduces readers to Sarah Brandt, a widow from a wealthy and prominent family who renounces her heritage to become a midwife for the poor. While working in a Lower East Side boardinghouse, Sarah encounters a pregnant sixteen-year-old girl who bears a striking resemblance to an old friend from the very upper-class VanDamm family. When she returns a few days later to check on her patient, Sarah discovers that the young mother-to-be has been murdered and was in fact the sister of her old friend. With honest cop Detective Sergeant Frank Malloy, Sarah is soon back in the Fifth Avenue mansions of her youth, determined to find the murderer despite the interference of the VanDamm patriarch and a corrupt police department. A Publishers Weekly reviewer noted that "Thompson vividly recreates the gas-lit world of old New York, concluding her mystery with revelations that will shock even [contemporary] readers."

Murder on St. Mark's Place again finds Sarah Brandt teaming up with Detective Frank Malloy, despite their different approaches and a mutual antagonism that masks their attraction to each other. When Sarah is summoned by the newly arrived Otto family one night, she assumes that Agnes Otto has gone into labor. Instead, she finds Agnes in despair because her sister Gerda has been murdered and the police show no interest in finding an immigrant's killer. Again, the trail leads from the slums to the mansions, and to a very prominent family with a dark secret. "Although the sexual tension is not as taut … lovers of history, mystery, and romances are not going to be disappointed," concluded Bromberg in the Romantic Times.

In Murder on Gramercy Park, Detective Malloy jump-starts the action when he is called in to investigate the suicide of a physician named Doctor Blackwell. Arriving on the scene, he finds Mrs. Blackwell in labor, and despite his reluctance he sends for Sarah to deliver the baby. Soon he determines that the suicide is actually a murder, and given the doctor's shady business dealings and unusual healing techniques applied to attractive women, a multitude of suspects soon present themselves. But when a mysterious illness grips the Blackwell baby, Sarah and Frank find themselves on the trail of a scandalous secret filled with greed and treachery.

Scandal again lies at the heart of Murder on Washington Square, but this time Sarah is struggling to save a young man's reputation from the ravenous tabloid press. When her neighbor Nathan approaches her for advice, she discovers that he has a pregnant mistress. Unfortunately, a few days later, the young woman's body is found under Washington Square's dreaded hanging tree. Frank Malloy is assigned to the case, and "there are several clever but fleeting scenes" of the couple toying with the idea of becoming closer, noted Kliatt reviewer Maureen K. Griffin. While the press has already convicted young Nelson, Brandt and Malloy discover that the victim was not all she seemed. With the help of a dogged reporter and some nosy neighbors, they begin to uncover the young lady's secrets and start to suspect that the victim was the victimizer. Sarah and Frank again team up to solve the murder of a young girl at the Prodigal Son Mission, a home for "wayward girls," in Murder on Mulberry Bend.

Murder on Marble Row starts with a bang, literally, when someone blows up the office of Gregory Van Dyke, with the unfortunate businessman inside it. Assigned to the case, Malloy comes up against a wall of snobbery, greedy relatives, and children each with their own reasons for resenting dear old dad. As a Kirkus Reviews contributor put it, the "Irish-American cop is allowed into [the] drawing room, though nobody offers him a seat." Sarah has somewhat more success using her social connections to wheedle information from Van Dyke's circle of friends and family and business partners. The result is another "entertaining mix of history and mystery," according to Booklist reviewer Barbara Bibel.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

periodicals

Booklist, May 1, 2004, Barbara Bibel, review of Murder on Marble Row, p. 1524.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2004, review of Murder on Marble Row, p. 367.

Kliatt, July, 2002, Maureen K. Griffin, review of Murder on Washington Square, p. 25; July, 2003, Barbara Jo McKee, review of Murder on Mulberry Bend, p. 27.

Library Journal, May 1, 2004, Rex E. Klett, review of Murder on Marble Row, p. 143.

Publishers Weekly, April 5, 1999, review of Murder on Astor Place, p. 238; May 3, 2004, review of Murder on Marble Row, p. 175.

online

AllReaders.com, http://www.allreaders.com/ (November 22, 2004), Harriet Klausner, review of Murder on Washington Square.

MurderExpress.net, http://www.murderexpress.net/ (November 22, 2004), review of Murder on Astor Place.

RomanticTimes.com, http://www.romantictimes.com/ (November 22, 2004), Gerry Benninger, review of Cry Wolf; Sheri McNeill, review of Wings of Morning; Anne Black, review of From This Day Forward; Toby Bromberg, review of Murder on Astor Place; Toby Bromberg, review of Murder on St. Mark's Place.

Victoria Thompson Web site, http://www.victoriathompson.com (November 22, 2004).