Kathy Lynn Emerson

Kathy Lynn Emerson writes historical mysteries, romance, children's books, and nonfiction, also publishing as Kaitlyn Dunnett and Kate Emerson. Echoes and Illusions is a romantic suspense novel about Maine businesswoman Lauren Ryder, whose encounter with a Tudor portrait triggers disturbing dreams and questions about her missing early memories. Face Down Under The Wych Elm belongs to Emerson's ten-book Face Down series, featuring sixteenth-century herbalist and investigator Susanna, Lady Appleton; in this fifth mystery, Susanna risks accusations against herself while helping a woman charged with witchcraft. Face Down O’er the Border closes the sequence in 1577, carrying Susanna's story into Scotland. Across these books, domestic knowledge becomes investigative skill rather than merely period background. The original series appeared through publishers including St. Martin's Minotaur and Perseverance Press, and Emerson later prepared revised editions and collected volumes. Her sustained research into Elizabethan life also informs an Agatha Award-winning guide to researching and writing historical crime, joining practical scholarship to her fictional investigations.