Elise Sax

Elise Sax writes comic mysteries and romance after an earlier career in journalism, much of it spent in Paris. Going Down belongs to her Five Wishes sequence, a group of novellas in which apparently simple wishes produce romantic complications and comic reversals. Her first published novel, An Affair to Dismember, opened the Matchmaker Mysteries and introduced the humorous voice that became central to her fiction. Sax has explained that work as a private investigator helped inspire its initial setup, while her reporting background sharpened her interest in unusual news and plot-driven situations. She outlines mystery chapters in advance but leaves room for characters to redirect a story, an approach suited to books that mix danger, banter, and unexpected relationships. Alongside the Matchmaker books and Five Wishes stories, she has written connected romantic comedies and shorter mysteries. Going Down represents the compact, high-energy side of her bibliography, using one wish as the hinge for both mishap and affection.