The Waycross Springs Trilogy: The three novels in this omnibus edition were all previously published as category romances by Bantam Loveswept and all three include characters who later appear in the author's Liss MacCrimmon Mysteries (written as Kaitlyn Dunnett). They are set, entirely or in part, in the small, rural town of Waycross Springs, Maine.
In Relative Strangers, in 1997, Corrie Ballantyne decides to spend Christmas at the Sinclair House rather than with her family. Soon after she arrives, she begins to see a woman dressed in nineteenth-century clothing. She slowly comes to realize that it must be the ghost of Adrienne Sinclair, Lucas Sinclair's ancestor, and that Adrienne is intent on playing matchmaker. Romantic Times called this book "Top of the line reading for romance fans!" For mystery buffs, it also contains both past and present day mysteries in the subplot.
The E-Mail Order Bride was originally published under the title Sight Unseen. The story is set in 1998, when Maine probation officer Chase Forster, who wants to create a home for his niece and nephew, yields to the impulse to ask Leslie Baynton, a woman he's only met online, to become his e-mail order bride. Leslie has doubts, but she's already half in love with a man she's never seen.
That Special Smile is also set in 1998 and opens when widower Russ Tandy, owner of a music and gift shop, recruits Tory Grenville to help his teenaged daughter prepare for a beauty pageant. In high school, Tory was a "brain" and Russ the BMOC, but now they're on equal footing. Romantic Times called this story "appealing."
Kathy Lynn Emerson is the author of sixty-four traditionally published works of fiction and nonfiction under several names and has independently published other books. She won an Agatha Award for nonfiction for How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries and received the 2023 Lea Wait Award for "excellence and achievement." She lives in Maine.
