DEAR FRIENDS,

Happy New Year! I hope all is well with you and your family, and I'm doing great — psyched about a new year and a new book — a special one, because it marks the return of Rosato & Associates! For me, it feels like a homecoming, and I hope it will for many of you, too. Those of you who have loved the girls have been asking me to bring them back — along with their adventures — and I did!

I've always loved writing about Mary, Bennie, Judy and Anne, not to mention Mr. & Mrs. DiNunzio and the Tonys, but the last time they appeared was five years ago in KILLER SMILE. As I was completing that book, I lost my wonderful father, Frank Scottoline, to cancer. When I began to write about the DiNunzio family again, I realized for the first time how much of my father is in Mr. DiNunzio. (Writers, evidently, don't always know where their ideas come from, or their characters. Maybe I need to be a little more insightful?)

My father and Mr. DiNunzio don't look or talk alike, but their soul is the same — warm, loving and gentle. It was simply too hard for me to write about Mr. D, and I couldn't write Mary without her family (no character can be fully understood without the context of family, and especially not Mary — or me). So I went on to write new characters that I think still have the strength, spunk, and humor of Rosato and the gang. Thanks to each of you for your loyalty in getting to know these new friends, along with me. From now on, I'll alternate writing a Rosato book and a "standalone," so you won't have to wait so long for either. (Yay! A plan! Pretty good for a girl who writes with no outline. My surprise endings are always a surprise — to me!)

For those of you who know Rosato & Associates books, you'll notice in LADY KILLER that our girl Mary is starting to grow up — and it isn't always good news, as you'll see from her dramatic clash with the titan, Bennie Rosato. If you're just starting the series, LADY KILLER is a terrific place to begin. You'll meet the entire cast of characters, and you won't need to know anything in advance to read the book. Just pick it up and go. (With my books, there's no studying! We graduated!)

What's the plot of LADY KILLER? In short, Mary is asked for help by her high-school nemesis, mean girl Trish "Trash" Gambone, who is having major trouble with her boyfriend, an abusive mobster. Before you can say President-of-the-Latin-Club, poor Mary finds herself going where she never wanted to go — investigating a murder and confronting her own past. For me, the underlying theme is how life changes us, over time. Most of us are not the same people we were in high school, but how are we different? And why? And don't you know someone who remains unchanged since high school? How bad (or good) is that? I think all of these questions resonate behind the book, and it may remind some of you of feelings you had at your high-school reunion or since then. Because one thing I've learned from my readers over the years is that you're super-smart, and it's the themes in my books that resonate the most for you. So thanks for that, and for your intelligence.

And thanks, from the bottom of my heart, for your friendship. I treasure each of you.

Love,