Anne here, interviewing Jo Bourne about her long-awaited new book, Beauty Like the Night, the latest in her acclaimed "Spymaster" series. For those who might be wondering, the title comes from Lord Byron:
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meets in her aspect and her eyes;
The reviews are glowing: All About Romance gave it their coveted "Desert Island Keeper" rating, a glowing review, and summed up thus: "a great read and a terrific addition to what is easily one of the finest series of historical romance novels around."
Romantic Times gave it a "Top Pick" and said: "A grand mistress of romantic espionage returns! With a powerful, suspenseful plot and unforgettable characters, this Spymaster chapter grips you from the opening line with its tale of murder and treason."
Anne: Having read it myself, I heartily concur. Jo, congratulations on the publication of Beauty Like the Night. Readers have been waiting for this for a long time. You must be thrilled to have it out at last.
Jo: I feel good, finally laying this book down. I hope folks are going to like it.
Y’know, the length of time it takes to write a book and how good it is are only somewhat distant relations. It’s like those cousins you have where you call in Aunt Fedora to work out just where you meet on the family tree. (Here's a photo of Jo taken by PJ Ausdenmore at the recent RWA conference)
Anne: Your heroine in this book is Séverine de Cabrillac, whom we first met in The Forbidden Rose, when she was a very young child caught up in the terror of revolutionary Paris. She's had a remarkable life since then — and she's a remarkable heroine. Tell us about Séverine.
Jo: Séverine – I hate to admit this – Séverine began life as a plot moppet. In Forbidden Rose I needed to make my character Justine suffer just a leeetle bit more than she already was. I wanted to make her vulnerable. So I gave my Justine a younger sister to care for and care about. That was Séverine.
But a good plot moppet isn’t a sweet thing, so I have Séverine borrow Hawker’s knife to gouge out lines in the wood flooring. Now, I don’t have her sing the dirty songs she overhears from the whorehouse parlor below – I wish I’d thought of that – but she does make clear that at three or so she knows exactly what goes on in the bedrooms.
Séverine is the kind of a girl who’d come from that childhood and grow up in Doyle’s household, among spies and the refugees of war. Fast forward a decade and a bit, we see this young woman running off to do some serious spying of her own in the many-sided struggle in Spain. Another decade and she’s home from the wars, older, tougher, wiser, and wounded in ways that don’t show.
That’s where the story starts, with Séverine having made her peace with the past. Having settled into a safe routine that doesn’t need any man to disrupt it.
Anne: And then along comes a man to disrupt it. (heh heh) Your hero is also a man of many parts—and many faces. Tell us about Raoul. (I have a theory about every Raoul hero in a romance, that they all stem from Mary Stewart's Raoul, in Nine Coaches Waiting.)
Jo: (Jo shuffles her feet and tries to look as if that weren’t exactly where the name came from.) There was maybe a wee tad of Nine Coaches Waiting about Raoul.Or maybe more than a wee tad.
Raoul is half-French and half-Spanish, both halves aristocrat as heck. He was at school when Spain got pulled into the fighting and he went off to seek private vengeance among the general mayhem. He’s a jewel thief, a Spanish patriot, a guerrillero, a fighter and somewhat of a lover of women.
Sévie doesn’t trust him as far as she can throw him.
Anne: Your readers will also be pleased to meet up with a number of characters from previous books — even the mysterious Lazarus.
Jo: Raoul runs into Lazarus briefly in this story. I mean – professional jewel thief going about his ordinary business. King of London’s underworld who collects payment from anyone who steals in ‘his’ city. What could be more natural than that they meet?
Mostly, though, it’s Doyle and Hawker who make significant appearances in the book. They’re Séverine’s family, and this book is about family, really.
Anne: Beauty Like the Night is the sixth book in the fabulous "Spymaster" series. Is it true that it will also be the last in that series?
Jo: I think BLTN is probably the last full-length novel in the Spymaster series. It’s not that I’ve run out of things to write about. It’s that I’m reluctant to embark upon another love story for the Meeks Street crew. I can see lots of stories for these folks, but not necessarily courtship stories.
So I’m setting this fictive world aside for a while. I might do some novellas ...
Anne: I love your minor characters, particularly the young ones — possible future heroes and heroines. I'm talking about Pilar, and young Bart, descendant of spymasters.
Jo: Pilar is one of those characters—you know the ones I mean – who have this little role all set out for them and then suddenly they turn out to be a bit more interesting than you’d expected.
Man, she is fierce.
Anne: Would you care to share a short excerpt from Beauty Like the Night, please?
Jo: Sure ‘nuff.
She said, “Everything you’ve done since then is to find out if I’m a killer and kidnapper.”
“I thought you might be.” She had been—she was—a woman of some ruthlessness. That knowledge lay between them, almost toothed in its intensity. She put her fists, the tight knuckles of them, to his chest and pushed. He stepped back at once.
She said, “I’m not an innocent white lamb. Distrust me if you want, but don’t kiss me again.” Robin Carlington had begun the job of humiliating her. Raoul Deverney had finished it, and his work was infinitely more skilled. “You didn’t have to make a fool of me.”
She shouldered past him and started toward the door of the stable.
“Nothing we’ve done makes a fool of you,” he said.
She wasn’t the only angry person in the stable this afternoon. “Do you know how dangerous you are to me? Do you think I’d toy with someone protected by the British Service if I were sane? Do you imagine I sat down one morning over coffee and decided to walk into a den of lions?”
“I think you came to Carlington House to stir up the hornets’ nest and see what would fly out. A waltz with me was a good way to do that.”
“You give me undeserved credit. I’m not nearly that cunning.”
“I think you are.” She turned away. “The last time we met you almost got yourself hanged. Take it as a warning.”
There's another excerpt here. (Click and scroll down)
Anne: So what's next for Joanna Bourne?
Jo: I might try something with a bit of a paranormal or fantasy element to it -- but still historical. I love to read books like these. It’ll be interesting to see if I can write them.
Anne: I'm sure you can, and I think your readers will follow you anywhere. I certainly will. Thanks, Jo — I'm sure Beauty Like the Night is going to fly off the shelves. As well as e-book and paperback, there's also an audio edition, which you can get here.
There's another, more detailed interview with Joanna here.
Jo is giving away a book (any one of her books & no geographical restrictions) to someone who leaves a comment or an answer to this question: What's a quality you really value in a heroine?