Hersham, Florence

(Diana Haviland)

PERSONAL:

Married.

ADDRESSES:

Home—New York, NY.

CAREER:

Writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Best Historical Saga award, Romantic Times; Porgie award, West Coast Review of Books.

WRITINGS:

HISTORICAL NOVELS; UNDER PSEUDONYM DIANA HAVILAND

The Moreland Legacy, Bobbs-Merrill (Indianapolis, IN), 1977.

The Passionate Pretenders, Five Star (Unity, ME), 1977.

Love's Promised Land, Fawcett Books (New York, NY), 1978.

Defy the Storm, Fawcett Books (New York, NY), 1981.

Proud Surrender, Fawcett Books (New York, NY), 1983.

Fortune's Daughter, Five Star (Unity, ME), 1985.

Embrace the Flame, Kensington Publishing (New York, NY), 1991.

Stolen Splendor, Pinnacle Books (New York, NY), 1994.

My Dearest Love, Zebra Books (New York, NY), 1996.

A Love beyond Forever, Leisure Books (New York, NY), 1999.

Death on the Ladies Mile: A Gaslight and Shadows Mystery, Five Star (Unity, ME), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Florence Hersham, who writes under the pseudonym Diana Haviland, is the author of bestselling historical novels that combine romance, history, and, in some cases, mystery. In My Dearest Love, a historical romance set during the gold rush in San Francisco, heroine Brianna Cameron has fled her home in Charleston, South Carolina, in an attempt to escape the vicious gossip surrounding the circumstances of her mother's death. On the ship, she meets Captain Devlin Rafferty, who is forced to rescue her from his crew. Once they reach San Francisco, Rafferty and Brianna part ways, but as Brianna struggles to make a new life in the strange city, she finds herself crossing paths with the Captain once again. The romance is set against the backdrop of the politics of the time. Romantic Times Online critic Kathe Robin commented: "Though the plot is sometimes contrived and predictable, readers with a passion for saga style romance will enjoy Ms. Haviland's latest."

Death on the Ladies Mile: A Gaslight and Shadows Mystery takes place in New York City during the 1800s, following the travails of Amanda Whitney and her mother after her father loses his money and dies in disgrace. In order to support them, Amanda's mother is forced to work as a lady's companion, while Amanda herself takes a position working as a journalist for a women's society newspaper. In the course of her work, Amanda finds herself writing a series of articles about a highly anticipated society wedding when the bride abruptly goes missing. On her wedding day, she is found murdered. The book describes the darker aspects of city life in the nineteenth century as she leads readers through the layers of the mystery. Linnea Dodson, in a review for I Love a Mystery, wrote: "This is not a cute or sweet book, but it is a very well-plotted one, with a particularly knotty solution."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Kirkus Reviews, January 15, 2006, review of Death on the Ladies Mile: A Gaslight and Shadows Mystery, p. 64.

ONLINE

I Love a Mystery, http://www.iloveamysterynewsletter.com/ (September 23, 2006), Linnea Dodson, review of Death on the Ladies Mile.

My Unicorn,http://www.myunicorn.com/ (September 24, 2006), brief author biography.

Romantic Times Online, http://www.romantictimes.com/ (September 24, 2006), Kathe Robin, review of My Dearest Love; Maria C. Ferrer, review of A Love beyond Forever.