Crusie Smith, Jennifer (1998) "The Romantic Suspense Mystery " Mystery and Suspense Writers: The Literature of Crime, Detection, and Espionage, Volume 2 1183-1197 Topic romantic suspense genre definitions settings Older and/or precursor texts (may not be "romance" as now defined) gothic romance Horace Walpole Ann Radcliffe Jane Austen Emily Brontë Charlotte Brontë Wilkie Collins death Mary Roberts Rinehart Mabel Seeley Dorothy MacCardle Georgette Heyer Vera Caspary Daphne du Maurier Mary Stewart Barbara Michaels a.k.a. Elizabeth Peters a.k.a. Barbara Mertz Victoria Holt/Jean Plaidy/Eleanor Burford Hibbert Mary Higgins Clark family Eileen Dreyer/Kathleen Korbel