by Barb, celebrating Valentine’s Day in Key West
Since it’s Valentine’s Day, our topic is obvious–romance. Just as all stories, regardless of genre, often contain a crime, all crime stories, regardless of subgenre, may contain romance, or romantic tension. There are straight up Romantic Suspense stories, there are Rom-Com mysteries, there are continuing series with continually growing relationships.
Wickeds, tell us about your favorite combinations of crime and romance. Favorite romantic suspense or rom-com, favorite couple, (or triangle), best author of crime and romance, favorite story of falling in love, or any other combination.
Julie: This is a tough one! My favorite couple is probably Amelia Peabody and Radcliffe Emerson, and the triangle would include Sethos. Elizabeth Peters kept the romance alive throughout the series. The difference between romantic suspense and mysteries with romance is an important distinction. K.D. Richards writers romantic suspense for Harlequin, and she needs to make sure that the romance is at the forefront. I enjoy that these sorts of books focus on different characters in the world of the book, and that they move around. Romances in mysteries that don’t get resolved aggravate me if they go on too long, though I was frustrated by one and realized that though the series is 20+ years old, in book time it’s been 3 years.
Liz: I think hands down my favorite couple is Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne from Julia Spencer Fleming’s series. I was alway smitten with the two of them! I don’t love triangles either, but I definitely do always like a romantic subplot.
Jessie: I enjoy a bit of romance in the mysteries I read and the ones I write. I don’t ever want it to hijack the story, but I appreciate the way it rounds out the lives of characters. As to a favorite, I find the on again, off again romance portrayed in Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway novels. It feels messy and real.
Barb: I’m happy with a little romance in my mysteries, though I don’t read romantic suspense and haven’t yet dipped into rom-coms. I have been reading more widely in women’s fiction and fantasy-romance since covid–something I would never have considered before. My favorite couple in mysteries are Reg Wexford and his wife Dora. For me, their long marriage was an antidote to the substance-abusing, tortured, lone-wolf detectives I kept encounting in the 90s. An unabasedly uxorious man, Wexford does have his flaws. He prefers one of his daughters over the other, something he feels profound guilt about. I thought this was a great flaw to explore as this story is so seldom told from an aware parent’s point of view.
Edith/Maddie: I have read a few of Jenn McKinlay’s recent rom-coms and really enjoyed them. One of my favorite couples in crime fiction is Deborah Crombie’s Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid. They’ve been wrangling jobs with the London police even as they manage parenting three children and keep their relationship alive – for about twenty books now. I always have romance in my protagonists’ lives, too.
Sherry: I’m late to the party — sorry about that. I’m one of the few people who doesn’t mind a love triangle. So if you love a love triangle read the Janet Evanovich books. I love Russ and Clare too. Julia set them up and brought them together in a realistic, heart-wrenching way.
Readers: Do you read romantic suspense? Rom-coms? Romance? Who are you favorite mystery-related romantic partners?