Wouldn’t it be wonderful if two different schools of thought could marry into one perfect union? To compromise and meld together to create the perfect blend of thoughts. Romance authors love to push the most unlikely characters together who must overcome fates determined to keep them apart. Mystery authors, however, like to create mayhem and consequences to everyday actions and heroes and heroines who must step up to solve the crime and calm the chaos. Fuse those two talents together and you have the perfect partnership—two entities that compliments the other—and a splendid new series guaranteed to captivate and intrigue readers.
Bestselling author Darcy Burke has conquered the challenge of marrying two genres and created a magical, sexy new duo of Victorian crime fighters and she graciously accepted my invitation to sit down in my very own cozy corner to discuss her new Raven and Wren series.
Kym: Welcome to The Cozy Corner on Fresh Fiction!
Darcy: Thank you so much for having me, Kym!
Kym: In July 2024 you released your first historical mystery, A WHISPER OF DEATH. As a prolific historical romance writer, why did you want to delve into a new realm?
Darcy: I’ve written a couple of romance series that were mysteries or, at least, suspense. My Legendary Rogues series are action-adventure treasure hunts in the vein of The da Vinci Code, Romancing the Stone, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. With some Arthurian legend thrown in for good measure, lol. I love those books so much and definitely wanted to write mystery again. I think watching Miss Scarlet and the Duke maybe pushed me into wanting to try a Victorian mystery!
Kym: Like most historical novels, you kept the dual points of view in the series, much different from most mysteries and I love it. Did you find that helped you transition to the new genre?
Darcy: I didn’t give it too much thought! I just knew that both main characters were very important. The books are somewhat centered on Tilda, but Hadrian plays a crucial role, particularly because of his supernatural ability. And, of course, their slow burn romance is a major arc of the series.
Kym: Do you ‘cast’ your characters on a white board or Pinterest board prior to writing or do you let readers choose the cast for themselves?
Darcy: I never cast characters. I am absolutely terrible at visualizing people when I am writing or reading. Which also makes me pretty bad at describing them, lol. But I love when readers do it!
Kym: Oh, I think you described Hadrian very well, you are a master at seducing the reader with your leading men and women. Readers have compared the series to the PBS Masterpiece show, Miss Scarlet and the Duke. (Please don’t ship the Earl off to another country!) That is an incredible compliment. What was your inspiration for the series?
Darcy: Absolutely NOT shipping Hadrian off! Or killing him off (spoiler alert). They are central to the series. Thankfully, I do not have to deal with actors moving on to other projects! I had a lot of inspiration for the series, but Miss Scarlet and the Duke definitely gave me the vibe that drove me to choose the Victorian era.
Kym: All the better for your readers. I love your hero, Hadrian Beckett’s title, the Earl of Ravenhurst and your heroine, Matilda Wren. You’ve perfectly set the mood for a Victorian mystery. How do you choose names for your characters?
Darcy: By thinking about it way too much or not nearly enough! I spent a lot of time thinking about the main characters’ names for this series because their names would be the series title. I love ravens and they always make me think of London (seeing them at the Tower), and there’s something delightful about the name wren. My family is really into wildlife spotting and photography, particularly birds. We spend a lot of time at the local national wildlife refuge and see tons of birds, so there was probably some inspiration there. I do have a bad habit of choosing names that are similar (my first series has back-to-back heroes named Saxton and Sevrin. Sigh. So I track them now and try really hard not to do that. Nevertheless, I somehow ended up choosing a bunch of nature names for the first book in this series, which a reviewer pointed out. I had no idea I’d done it! In addition to Raven & Wren, there’s Tilda’s housekeeper, Mrs. Acorn, and her occasional employer, Mr. Forrest. It’s only four characters, I guess, but that comment amused me. Ironically, I rarely read reviews!
Kym: It just means a little bit of your personal passions go into every one of your books, and that makes it better for the readers!
After being assaulted, Ravenhurst starts having visions and thinks he’s going mad. I can see where the talent could benefit single women in the dating scene! Lol, but mystery does add spice to life. If you had a sudden magical power, what would it be and why?
Darcy: Such a good point about that being a helpful dating guide, lol. I think it would be great to be able to fall asleep immediately when I wanted to and then wake up, like four hours later, completely refreshed! Then, I could finally give up on hoping for a clone because I’d have more time in my day.
Kym: The perfect power! After his visions, Ravenhurst has horrible headaches, and as a person who has frequent migraines, the earl’s weakness, made him so much more relatable as a hero. (We can’t all be invincible!) Was that a planned effect on the reader or did it naturally evolve?
Darcy: Hadrian is a character that, to me, is unique among male heroes because of the vulnerability that he has from pretty much page one of book one. He has this near-death experience, and his life isn’t the same. Three books in, I am still exploring that and probably will for some time. The headaches make his ability challenging and provide a depth that’s been fun to write about.
Kym: This spring you’re releasing your fifth Rogue Rules book, UNTIL THE RAKE SURRENDERS. I’m not sure where you find all the hours in the day, but readers are definitely benefiting! What made this story special to you as you wrote the story of forbidden love with a friend’s brother?
Darcy: Honestly, I am still writing it! Because, as you so aptly pointed out, there are only so many hours in a day (and, alas, I cannot manage on four hours of sleep)! I am, regrettably, behind. I don’t think readers will find out how Min and Evan get together until May, but it will be worth the wait! I love this series because it’s about girlfriends and guy friends and also families. The last book (AS THE EARL LIKES), this book, and the next book (SINCE THE MARQUESS DEMANDS) are kind of a mini family saga within the series. I’m really enjoying writing about the family dynamics and how families form people and the relationships they choose.
Kym: With all of these other releases, you also released your first book in the Ribbon Ridge Contemporary Romance series in 2024, and the series is coming in hot in 2025 with even more of this 10-book series! That is awesome for contemporary romance readers. Can you tell us about the series and what made you go contemporary?
Darcy: This is actually a rerelease of a series I wrote in the mid-teens (wow, that looks weird!). Six of the ten books were published with Avon and had different titles. My fabulous publisher of the Raven & Wren books, Oliver Heber Books, is rereleasing them with new covers and titles and I could not be more thrilled. I actually got sucked into reading one of them the other day and I love them just as much now as when I wrote them. It’s very much a family saga with a lot of emotion and big themes. There are also neurodiverse characters, which is really special to me because my daughter is autistic. I didn’t intend to write contemporary romance, but the short version of the story is that I was up all night at a writing retreat one year because we had no heat! (It was January in Puget Sound.) While shivering, I came up with this idea for a series about sextuplets who were child stars on a reality show and then grew up to leave their small town only to be drawn back when one of them dies (there’s also a seventh kid and an eighth they adopted when he was orphaned in high school). I also wrote about another family in the town with three brothers. So, there’s ten books in Ribbon Ridge, and who knows? Maybe there will be more if readers love them as much as I do. There are definitely more characters to write about.
Kym: Since I somehow missed the first releases, I’m happy to pick up the releases! What is the biggest writing challenge when you switch back and forth between contemporary and historical romance? Do you change the atmosphere in your writing nook?
Darcy: I didn’t do anything different. I might change music I listen to, but I actually don’t listen to a lot of music while writing. It can be challenging to go back and forth, but at the time, I was mostly writing the contemporary series. I kept trying to write a historical romance, THE FORBIDDEN DUKE, but it wasn’t working. When I finally did manage to get it going and finish it, that book became my best-selling title!
Kym: Sometimes the best flavors need to brew. Do you have a favorite cozy corner you like to curl up and read in?
Darcy: I have a cozy writing corner in my office which is where I often read. I also read on my phone a lot when I’m waiting in my car or a doctor’s office. That’s not terribly cozy, lol.
Kym: Since vehicles are a common reading nook for moms in between activities, appointments and school pickups, maybe someone should design vehicles appropriately! Where can our readers find you on the web?
Darcy: My website. I also have German and French language websites at darcyburke.de and darcyburkefrancais.com. I am on Facebook and have a group, Darcy’s Duchesses. I’m also on Instagram and on Bluesky.
Kym: What are you working on now?
Darcy: UNTIL THE RAKE SURRENDERS. After that, I’ll be writing book 4 of Raven & Wren, A WHISPER IN THE SHADOWS, which I am super excited to write. When readers get to the end of book 3, A WHISPER AND A CURSE, they’ll know why!
Kym: Thank you for joining us on the Cozy Corner!
Darcy: Thank YOU. This has been really fun!
Until next month when Loren Jaggers visits the Cozy Corner, get cozy and read on!
Raven & Wren #2
Private investigator Matilda Wren’s new client is a woman seeking evidence to divorce her husband. She is also the former fiancée of her last client—and dear friend—Lord Ravenhurst. Though he has enthusiastically offered to aid Tilda with future investigations, she can’t very well accept his help in this matter. Especially when her client’s husband is murdered, and Ravenhurst is a suspect.
Hadrian Becket, Earl of Ravenhurst has never felt more alive than when he was solving a mystery with Miss Wren, even when suffering headaches from using his newly acquired ability to touch an object and see a person’s memories. He wants nothing more than to continue their professional association as well as deepen their friendship. Except now he must prove he isn’t guilty of murder, even if that includes working against his former partner.
Tilda can’t believe Hadrian is capable of harming anyone, but how well does she know him? She must rely on her intellect and investigative skill—and not allow her affinity for him to cloud her judgment. When the killer strikes again, Tilda sees that the danger is not to their friendship after all, but to their very existence.
Mystery Historical [Oliver-Heber Books, On Sale: February 25, 2025, e-Book , / ]
Darcy Burke is the USA Today Bestselling Author of sexy, emotional historical and contemporary romance. Darcy wrote her first book at age 11, a happily ever after about a swan addicted to magic and the female swan who loved him, with exceedingly poor illustrations. Join her Reader Group. A native Oregonian, Darcy lives on the edge of wine country with her guitar-strumming husband, their two hilarious kids who seem to have inherited the writing gene, two Bengal cats and a third cat named after a fruit.
Kym Roberts writes by day and is a pro-surfer in her dreams by night. Her humor is often raunchy, her jokes are often bad, but her hunger for a story keeps the adventures coming fast. Experience the thrill & catch the wave of passion, mystery, and suspense with her on her website, on Facebook, and on Twitter.
Her debut historical romance novel in The Scandalous Sisters series,THE RUINED DUCHESS releases April 2025 under the pseudonym Helene Matheson.
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