Praise for The Writing Master : “I don’t have enough superlatives to describe my delight with THE WRITING MASTER. I loved every moment I spent in the 19th-century world of Florey’s endearing and complicated characters. I loved their heartbreaking plights, their sparkling dialogue, their fully realized setting, their unexpected destinations. I will read it again while I wait for a sequel.”

• Monica Wood, author of When We Were the Kennedys In the summer of 1856, Charles Cooper, a young teacher of writing, is struggling to come to terms with the tragic accident that killed his wife and baby son. Complicating things is Lily Prescott, his sometime student - an unconventional woman with a shady past and an uncertain future that she is trying her calculating best to improve. When a brutal murder takes place just outside the city of New Haven, CT, Charles – an expert penman – becomes involved in its solution, along with Harold Milgrim, an amateur detective in the mold of Poe’s C. Auguste Dupin. The consequences of Charles' involvement are both unexpected and far-reaching. Strongly influenced by the author’s love of 19th century fiction and her immersion in New England history – and inspired by her nonfiction book, Script and Scribble: The Rise and Fall of Handwriting(to be published in paperback in September 2013) – The Writing Master meticulously evokes another age, one of sooty railroad journeys, extravagantly inconvenient clothing, strict social codes, and severe penalties for their transgression – as well as the timeless passions and aspirations of a cast of memorable characters.