This image is the cover for the book Diamond in the Buff, The Jill Smith Mysteries

Diamond in the Buff, The Jill Smith Mysteries

After a bizarre attack, a petty feud between neighbors turns serious
Although the citizens of Berkeley are famously tolerant, that progressive attitude disappears at the property line between the homes of Dr. Hasbrouck Diamond and Leila Sandoval. In the Berkeley hills , there are no worse neighbors than Diamond and Sandoval. What began as a tiff about garbage cans and street parking has exploded into full-blown war, drawing in the city, the press, and now—to the irritation of detective Jill Smith—the police department. Struck by a falling eucalyptus branch while sunning on his deck, Dr. Diamond accuses his neighbor of assault with a deadly tree. As a heat wave causes tempers to flare even higher, Jill does her best to referee the back-and-forth. But when their feud ends in death, she realizes that the community might only be safe with the neighbors behind bars.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Susan Dunlap including rare images from the author’s personal collection.

Susan Dunlap

Susan Dunlap (b. 1943) is a prolific author of mystery novels. Born in the suburbs of New York, Dunlap majored in English at Bucknell College and earned a masters in teaching from the University of North Carolina. She was a social worker before an Agatha Christie novel inspired her to try her hand writing mysteries. Five attempts and five years later, she published Karma (1981), which began a ten book series about brash Berkeley cop Jill Smith.  Since then, Dunlap has published more than twenty novels and numerous short stories. Her other ongoing characters include the meter-reading detective Vejay Haskell, medical examiner Kiernan O’Shaugnessy, and Zen student turned detective Darcy Loft. In addition to writing, Dunlap has taught yoga, worked as a paralegal, and helped found the women’s mystery organization Sisters In Crime. She lives in San Francisco.

Open Road Integrated Media