The legendary Renaissance man and amateur sleuth is back in this exciting follow-up to The Queen's Gambit. As court engineer to the Duke of Milan, Leonardo da Vinci turns his superior mind to a variety of pursuits-from painting to solving the occasional murder. After the deaths of two female servants, Leonardo asks his apprentice, Dino, to go undercover disguised as a woman in the service of the Duke's ward, Contessa Caterina. This should be easy enough, given that "Dino" is in reality Delfina, a young woman masquerading as a boy to serve as Leonardo's apprentice. Delfina is soon torn between her loyalty to Leonardo and her growing feelings for Gregorio, the handsome captain of the Duke's guard. But if what the Contessa's tarot cards foretold is correct, Delfina might be destined to lose her heart...and perhaps her life.
DIANE A.S. STUCKART, who also writes as ALI BRANDON, is a member of that proud breed, the native Texan. She was born in the West Texas town of Lubbock, home to Buddy Holly, prairie dogs, and Texas Tech University, where her mom once taught. Most of her formative years, however, were spent in Dallas with her parents and siblings: one younger sister and three younger brothers. And then, when she was fifteen, her dad's work took them north of the Red River and into Oklahoma, settling just outside Oklahoma City.
Diane stayed in the Sooner State long enough to finish high school and obtain her degree in Journalism from the University of Oklahoma (where she met her husband, Gerry) before returning home to Texas again. Then, like countless others with a brand new Liberal Arts degree, she promptly took a job in retail.
To her parents' relief, however, she eventually put that diploma to good use by publishing several critically acclaimed historical romances written as ALEXA SMART and ANNA GERARD, as well as numerous works of short fiction and fantasy under her own name. Her first published novel--MASQUERADE, written under the name Alexa Smart--was a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart award finalist. She also contributed to several DAW anthologies, including A CONSTELLATION OF CATS, FAMILIARS, and SORCERER'S ACADEMY.
Now, however, Diane has moved into the mystery genre with two new series. The first is a historical series featuring Leonardo da Vinci as a crime solver. Leonardo is assisted by his trusty apprentice Dino, who has secrets of "his" own! The first installment was THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT, still available in hardcover from Berkley Prime Crime. The second book in the series, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, was published January 2009 and won the Florida Book Awards Silver Medal for Popular Fiction. The third book, A BOLT FROM THE BLUE, was published in January 2010.
Coming December 2011 will be the first novel in Diane's new contemporary series, written as ALI BRANDON. The fun new BLACK CAT BOOKSHOP MYSTERIES feature Hamlet the cat, whose unwitting new owner, transplanted Texan Darla Pettistone, runs an Brooklyn bookstore she inherited from her great-aunt. Diane also has published a collection of her short fiction on Kindle. Look for WHO'S BEHIND THE DOOR? for some great tales of mystery and suspense.
And genres is not all that Diane recently changed. Life beyond the Lone Star State continued to beckon. Succumbing to a momentary impulse, Diane finally pulled up stakes and left the plains of North Texas for the beaches of South Florida. There, accompanied by her husband, four dogs, and two cats, she now is finding new sources of inspiration among the sand and palm trees. Though she has eagerly embraced life in the Sunshine State, Diane hasn't quite accepted the fact that apparently a girl can own too many black t-shirts...at least, when she lives in West Palm Beach.
When she's not writing or working at her day job, Diane spends her time doing yoga (she's a registered yoga teacher at the 200 hour level), gardening, and making sure the pets don't get eaten by stray gators. She is also a founding member of the Gold Coast Paranormal Society, a group dedicated to searching out ghosts in the South Florida area, as well as a board member of the Florida chapter of Mystery Writers of America. And, as if she didn't have enough going already, her latest passion is belly dancing, though she admits to being pretty bad at it so far. But who can resist those great costumes! And so she keeps practicing.
Diane loves to hear from her fans, so feel free to email her and let her know what you think about writing, Leonardo da Vinci, yoga, belly dancing, ghosts, or whatever else strikes your fancy.
