Why did you give up lawyer Lipp in favor of writing mysteries set during Americas Colonial period?
I was working on the third Seymour book, when Janet Hutchings, my editor, left to become the editor of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, where she still is. Then, Edy decided selling fiction was too difficult, and the new editor at Walker chose not to continue the series. So, I had a book, but no agent or editor. The Walker books received excellent reviews, but so-so sales. I had finished Seymour No. 3, but put it aside while I started writing a straight historical novel set in 17th-century New England. I had done my graduate work on American Puritanism of that time, and I was — and am — intrigued both by Puritanism and by the story of Anne Hutchinson, a charismatic religious leader who caused a crisis in the early years of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In what way did Hutchinson provoke this “crisis”? Arriving shortly after the colony was founded, Hutchinson developed a large following in Boston. She held weekly meetings in her house during which she challenged the prevailing religio
