William S. Shepard

I was an American career diplomat, and once while on midnight duty at the Department of State it struck me that diplomacy would be a perfect career for an amateur sleuth! After all, diplomats are trained analysts, and have access to intelligence reports in addition to other restricted material. They look closely at two societies - the one that sent them, and the society where they live, and that is the original meaning of the word diplomacy, "having two eyes." Perhaps a diplomat who was an amateur sleuth would even have an advantage in detection over the sleuth who did not have such access.

With that in mind, I created Robbie Cutler, an American thirtysomething career diplomat, and a sleuth. There are now four novels in the series.

In "Vintage Murder," Cutler, Consul at the American Consulate General in Bordeaux, uncovers a blackmail plot by the extremist Basque ETA aimed at the great wine estates of Bordeaux. He meets and is aided by Sylvie Marceau, who has a keen sense of people and their motivations.

In "Murder On The Danube," Robbie is Political Officer at the Embassy in Budapest. His task is to unearth a current murderer who was a traitor during the Hungarian Revolution. The task is made more difficult by the fact that these files have been officially sealed.

In "Murder In Dordogne," Robbie and Sylvie, who became engaged in the previous book, now are on their honeymoon. But an old mystery comes their way -the remains of an SOE operative, the fiancee of Robbie's Uncle Seth, come to light. Solving that old mystery brings murder up to date, as Sylvie uncovers a plot to murder her husband.

In "The Saladin Affair," Robbie is now Special Assistant to the Secretary of State. He plans a trip to London, Dublin, Paris, Vienna, Riga and Vienna. But Al Qaeda joins the trip - as if Robbie didn't have enough to do, with the murder of the American Ambassador to Dublin in her official residence at Phoenix Park to solve.