skylark
Having said that I don't like thrillers, I must admit I turned right around and wrote one. Skylark is full of international hanky-panky. Since the story deals with the impact on airline passengers of the Lockerbie disaster, it surprised my socks off that Worldwide kept the paperback in airport bookstores for more than two years. It's my fear-of-flying book. Go figure.
Lark is in London for a booksellers' conference and sharing the rent on a small flat in South Kensington with Ann Veryan, a high school English teacher from Georgia. Lark is looking for collectible books, and Ann is exploring London for the first time. They've struck up a friendship with Milos Vlacek, a Czech refugee waiter from the conference hotel. On their way back from a matinee of Macbeth at the Barbicon, Milos is stabbed on the underground. Minutes earlier he had given Ann a manuscript to carry for him in her huge needlepoint purse.
What do you do if you're a foreigner caught up in a British police investigation? Lark sends for Jay, now her husband, who was coming over soon anyway to attend a police conference. She also mails a copy of the Czech-language manuscript to her father, who has a colleague capable of translating it. Milos is not dead, but his injuries are grave. When Lark's landlady is murdered, police suspicion of Lark and Ann intensifies. Jay may arrive to find his wife in the Old Bailey. Clearly Lark has to Do Something.
Questions abound. Who is Milos? Why was he stabbed? What's in the manuscript? Who would kill an inoffensive elderly Englishwoman in her own hallway?
I probably had more fun writing Skylark than any of my other books, because it gave me an excuse to hang out in London. It was also one of those entertaining writing experiences in which secondary characters (Ann and Milos) rise up and take over the plot.
"Lark, who made such an engaging debut in Larkspur, remains a charming character with a firm grasp on emotional realities." E. Baltimore Guide
"Always literate, intriguing . . . add a plus for readers planning a trip to London and environs." Kirkus
"Lark Dodge hits the mark again in this mix of international intrigue and suspense . . . Self-aware and intelligent, the clearly drawn Lark is a promising new presence on the mystery scene." PW