Diane AS Stuckart Books in Order

If you want a bookish cozy mystery: Double-Booked for Death → A Novel Way to Die → Words With Fiends
If you want historical intrigue and sleuthing: The Queen's Gambit → Portrait of a Lady → A Bolt from the Blue
If you want magical animals and a lighter mystery: Fool's Moon
If you're curious about her earlier historical romance: Masquerade → Roses At Midnight → Poseidon's Daughter

Diane A.S. Stuckart was born in Lubbock, Texas, and spent most of her growing-up years in Dallas before her family moved to the Oklahoma City area when she was a teenager. She studied journalism at the University of Oklahoma, which fits the way her fiction tends to move, clue by clue and scene by scene, without a lot of wasted motion.

Texas never really left her.

For years, Stuckart balanced writing with a day job in purchasing and supply management. That practical side of her life sat next to a very different one, the part that wanted to write historical romance, mysteries, and short fiction. She wrote seriously for years before she sold a version of the first novel she had written, which says a lot about her staying power. She was not an overnight success. She was the kind of writer who kept going.

Her publishing career began in the 1990s with historical romances written as Alexa Smart and Anna Gerard. Books like Masquerade, Shadows of the Heart, and Roses At Midnight mixed love stories with danger, old secrets, and settings that had a bit of shadow around the edges. Her first published novel, Masquerade, was a Romance Writers of America Golden Heart Award finalist. Even in those early books, she seemed drawn to people who had to think fast, bluff a little, and find their way through trouble.

She later shifted into mystery, and that move suited her well. The Queen's Gambit opened her Leonardo da Vinci series and dropped readers into 1480s Milan, where the famous artist solves crimes while his gifted apprentice, Delfina, hides in plain sight as a boy called Dino. The follow-ups, Portrait of a Lady and A Bolt from the Blue, built on that mix of court politics, workshop life, invention, and murder. Portrait of a Lady won a Florida Book Award silver medal, and the series gave her a good space to combine history, suspense, and character.

Then came Hamlet.

Writing as Ali Brandon, Stuckart created the Black Cat Bookshop mysteries, starring Brooklyn bookseller Darla Pettistone and a large, opinionated black cat who is very good at nudging humans toward the truth. Double-Booked for Death kicked off the series, and A Novel Way to Die reached the New York Times extended bestseller list. These books became her widest-known work, and it is easy to see why. They are bookish, funny, warm, and very fond of their recurring cast, both human and feline.

She returned under her own name for Fool's Moon, the start of the Tarot Cats mysteries, set in a West Palm Beach botanica and built around Ruby Sparks, two clever black cats, and a cozy mystery world with a light magical shimmer. Across her different names and series, a few things keep showing up: smart amateurs, workplaces with personality, affectionate humor, and danger that stays readable rather than grim. Readers who like animals, history, or slightly offbeat settings can usually find a lane that suits them.

Stuckart was also active in the writing community. She served as president of the Florida chapter of Mystery Writers of America in 2018 and 2019, belonged to Sisters in Crime and the Cat Writers' Association, and wrote short fiction as well as novels. In her later years she lived in the West Palm Beach area with her husband, several animals, and a few beehives. She also loved thrifting, which feels very much in step with a writer who enjoyed curious objects, hidden histories, and creatures with minds of their own. She died in November 2025.