Kate Belli Books In Order

Publication Order of Gilded Gotham Mystery Books

Kate Belli
Author Kate Belli, who was fascinated by history from a young age, she got her PhD in American art and worked variously as a museum curator, antiques appraiser, and a college professor. She is also a Golden Heart finalist.

Kate’s lived all over the world, from Florence, Italy, to the Deep South, Brooklyn, New York, to a cottage located next to Monet’s gardens located in Northern France. She works and lives with her husband and son in Central Pennsylvania.

While living in the Deep South, she learned to embrace biscuits and football, and how somebody tolerates large insects.

When Kate’s not busy writing, she satisfies her wanderlust by traveling with her family as often as she possibly can, sampling local food and touring museums. Depending on what day it is, she is a yoga teacher and an avid runner, completing many marathons. She loves camping, cooking, and hiking, and is a firm believer that strong coffee and red wine each qualify as their own food groups.

Kate began writing because of the “Bridgerton” series (written by Julia Quinn), back in the early 2000s. She loved the romance, the friendships, and she thought she could writing something similar set in Gilded Age NYC. This effort turned into her “Gilded Gotham” historical mystery series. However, the Bridgertons are always going to have a special place in her heart.

Her first novel took her a long time to finish. She would only write it in fits and starts, and her New Year’s Resolution was to just Finish the Book, for quite a few years. She relayed parts of it to her brother, finding it to be a heady feeling to tell somebody the story and have them be entertained by it. Giving the world in her head shape down on the page was a much more heady feeling.

She kept this writing a secret. Only a select group of people in her life knew that she had embarked on something as audacious as penning a novel, even though she was surrounded by writers. Being around writers only fed her Imposter Syndrome.

During this time, she was married to a writer, her first husband. He worked with people who were also writers and was friends with writers. They made up practically his entire social circle, and they comprised hers, due to marital osmosis. She never told her husband’s friends about her novel. They were supposed Real Writers, or aspiring ones.

She figures that most would be supportive, if they’d known about her endeavors. She still has some doubts about a few others, including one well-known writer that gave her own used dishes as a wedding gift. The one or two people she did tell were enthusiastic, and her ex-husband even surprised her one day with a book, called “Writing a Romance Novel for Dummies”, which was her introduction to craft.

Eventually, she removed herself from the bad marriage, met and married her wonderful husband, and moved to the Deep South. Somehow, it was her son being born that got her to finish the book. Kate would sit with him late during the night, and breathed in the miracle scent from the top of his head. She thought hard and long about what she wanted her life to look like with her tiny human in it. This meant that she would be somebody that finished what they began. She didn’t want another New Year’s to pass on with the same resolution.

She took out her unfinished manuscript, and wrote and wrote until she had it done.

Kate’s debut novel, called “Deception by Gaslight”, was released in the year 2020, and was published by Crooked Lane Books. Her work is from the women’s fiction, romance, historical, and mystery genres.

“Deception by Gaslight” is the first novel in the “Gilded Gotham Mystery” series and was released in the year 2020. Glittering Gilded-Age New York holds lavish charms as well as a litany of lethal sins, while intrepid reporter Genevieve Stewart exposes a trail of murder and corruption.

While a chill sets in on New York City during the winter of 1888, a jewel thief that has been dubbed the “Robin Hood of the Lower East Side” has been stealing from the wealthiest of the city and giving it to the poor. Genevieve Stewart, a young lady whose family’s part of Mrs. Astor’s famed 400 but has forged a life all her own as a reporter and goes under the name of Polly Palmer. She decides to chase this story, but ends up getting more than she bargained for: a murder victim sprawled in the dark alley in the dangerous Five Points neighborhood.

A handsome neighborhood tough comes to rescue her, however when she encounters the same guy at a glamorous ball just a few nights later, she realizes that he is society scion Daniel McCaffrey. Could this be Genevieve’s Robin Hood? When two additional murders rock the Knickerbocker world, it becomes obvious that something a lot more sinister is afoot than just a few stolen diamond necklaces. Genevieve is determined to prove Daniel is really Robin Hood, but she hates to think he’s also a killer.

From the sordid back alleys of Five Points to the glittering lights of Fifth Avenue, the truth is just a murder away.

Belli’s compelling debut is a wonderful blend of romance, mystery, and historical intrigue. She drops her readers right into the cutthroat and dirty streets from a bygone Gotham, and introducing a couple whose fortunes they will wish to follow. The Gilded Age setting and some richly drawn characters make this the sort of novel you sink into and don’t want to ever leave. There is exciting action, a complicated conspiracy, and the allure of one contradictory romance that makes this an excellent page-turner.

Genevieve is a delightful heroine and it is fun seeing her and Daniel develop a relationship with each other. There is a romantic element, but there’s more going on in their relationship than mere physical attraction. They complement one another’s strengths, and there is real friendship between them both. Readers are interested in seeing where the second book takes Daniel and Genevieve.