Dear Burning Questions,

Mother/daughter duo P.J. Tracy has written three fabulous mysteries. Is there another one in the works?

Roberta Gunning
Omaha, Nebraska

There is indeed another book in the works for P.J. and Traci Lambrecht. Snow Blind, to be published August 3 by Putnam, is the fourth novel starring the quirky employees of the software company Monkeewrench and Minnea-polis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth. When two police officers are found entombed in snowmen, Magozzi and Rolseth are on the case, and they'll need the computer expertise of the Monkeewrench gang to solve the crime.

Though P.J. lives in Minnesota and Traci in California, they meet regularly to plot their novels, and they develop storylines during marathon telephone conversations. What's it like to write with your mother or daughter? The authors answer that question on their website: "We have fun—always. We rarely disagree, we never argue, we laugh most of the time, and a lot of people hate us for this."

A NEW ANTIQUE

Dear Burning Questions,

Lovejoy is one of the most interesting characters in modern mystery fiction. Is Jonathan Gash writing a new Lovejoy mystery?

D.G. King
Raleigh, North Carolina

The Lovejoy mysteries are just one of the literary outlets of British author and former physician John Grant, whose penname is Jonathan Gash. He also writes medical thrillers featuring Dr. Clare Burtonall, and his stand-alone novels include last summer's The Year of the Woman.

But of course, you asked about his most famous creation, Lovejoy, an antiques dealer often described as a "lovable rogue." Lovejoy first appeared in 1977 and most recently in The Ten Word Game (St. Martin's, 2003). Lovejoy was also adapted for television by the BBC. Though the TV series ended in 1994, Gash's agent, Lisa Moylett, tells BQ: "Jonathan Gash is indeed still writing the Lovejoy series and I am due to take receipt of his 24th Lovejoy sometime very soon."

MAGICAL TALES

Dear Burning Questions,

I recently read Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke and was completely amazed. However, I can find nothing on what she is currently working on. I know this was her first novel. Is she planning on writing more?

Elizabeth Sanborn
Bloomington, Minnesota

Susanna Clarke wowed critics and readers with her compelling debut, which was touted as "Harry Potter for adults." Her publicist at Bloomsbury, Yelena Gitlin, says that Clarke's next project is a book of short stories, The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, to be published October 17. "Set in versions of England that bear an uncanny resemblance to the world of Strange and Norrell, the stories are brimming with all the ingredients of good fairy tales: petulant princesses, vengeful owls, ladies who pass their time in embroidering terrible fates, endless paths in deep, dark woods and houses that never appear the same way twice," says Gitlin.

HISTORY'S MYSTERIES

Dear Burning Questions,

Does Leslie Silbert have anything new coming out? I loved her thriller The Intelligencer.

Margaret Wichorek
Newport News, Virginia

A Renaissance scholar and former P.I., author Leslie Silbert was able to blend her two passions in her debut novel, The Intelligencer, which related the mysterious death of 16th-century playwright (and possible spy) Christopher Marlowe to a modern-day murder.

Silbert once again combines history and mystery in her second novel, Killing Caravaggio, which will be published by Atria Books in 2008. We got in touch with her at home in New York City, and she shared a few plot details with BQ: "Killing Caravaggio delves into the mysteries of the artist's tumultuous final days: his imprisonment by the Knights of Malta, his dramatic escape from their isle, and his so-called natural death long suspected to have been murder. Like The Intelligencer, it interweaves two fast-paced narratives separated by centuries, which are united by interlocking plots as well as a theme, the clash between Islam and Christendom, and how it has changed throughout history."