Q&A with Kerrigan Byrne on The Business of Blood

• Q&A

  Kerrigan, I’m reading this book now and it’s amazing. How did the idea for it spark?

  I’m so glad you’re enjoying it! You know, I’ve always been nuts for a mystery, and the unsolved gruesomness of Jack the Ripper has always captivated me. Also, I worked in evidence collection for a few years and I couldn’t help but think how difficult it would be so many years ago when we didn’t have the chemicals we have now.

  This is a different kind of book for you, although historical, it’s your first foray into mystery and suspense. What made you want to explore this territory? Was it easier or more difficult to write?

  I adore romance, and I don’t think I’d be able to write a book without a bit of a romantic element. However, in the romance world, there are some very strict rules about how men and women can behave in a story. How complicated and conflicted a female character can be, especially. I have always wanted to write Fiona, and I’m glad that another genre gives me that chance. However, I know she’ll get her Happily Ever After, as well!

  I love your female characters—they are always strong, intelligent and resourceful. Tell us a little bit about Fiona Mahoney.

  Fiona is a woman who once had it all, then lost everything, and then has had to build herself up from nothing. She had a family killed in a war, a fiancé who left her for the priesthood, and a best friend killed by Jack the Ripper. She moved to London in the most desperate of circumstances, and she’s been able to make a decent living doing what no one else wants to do, clean up after the dead. In doing so, she’s made some powerful enemies and allies. She’s broken a few rules, and even a few laws, and she’ll learn some hard lessons along the way. But because she’s survived so much, she’s become witty, savvy, and knows how to handle herself in a world of dangerous men.

  What do you hope readers will take away from this book? And will we be seeing more mystery and mayhem from you in the future? (I hope so!).

  I am planning to write at least two more books! More, if sales allow. Mystery was actually my first genre and my first love, and even in my romance, a bit of mystery always seems to eak through. So no, this will not be my last! Fiona has to find Jack, after all. ?

• About The Business of Blood

  London, 1890. Blood and death are Fiona Mahoney’s trade, and business, as they say, is booming.

  Dying is the only thing people do with any regularity, and Fiona makes her indecorous living cleaning up after the corpses are carted away. Her childhood best friend, Mary, was the last known victim of Jack the Ripper. It’s been two years since Fiona scrubbed Mary’s blood from the floorboards, and London is no longer buzzing about the Ripper, but Fiona hasn’t forgotten.

  And she hasn’t stopped searching for Jack.

  When she’s called to a murder in the middle of the night, Fiona finds a victim mutilated in an eerily similar fashion to those of the Ripper, and only a few doors down from Mary’s old home. The relentless, overbearing, and irritatingly handsome Inspector Grayson Croft warns her away from the case. She might have listened, if she hadn’t found a clue in the blood. A clue that will lead her down a path from which there is no return.

  As a killer cuts a devastating swath through London, a letter written in blood arrives at her door, and it is only then that Fiona realizes just how perilous her endeavor is. For she has drawn the attention of an obsessive evil, and is no longer the hunter, but the prey.

  Fiona Mahoney is in the business of blood. But she’s not the only one.

  With intriguing twists, blood-chilling discoveries, and dazzling prose, USAToday Bestselling author Kerrigan Byrne shows that a woman’s work is never done, even when she is sleuthing out a serial killer.

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