A Little Etiquette, a Little Incense, a Little Edge

I think I was 13when I discovered, more or lessall at once, Georgette Heyer, Mary Stewart, Jane Aiken Hodge, and “romantic suspense,” a broad category that included different sorts of books but generally featured a woman in a diaphanous gown, framed againsta brooding manse. There might not even be a brooding manse in the book, but on the cover… (at the same period, SF oftenhad a rocket ship on the cover regardless of actual rocketry in the book). Gradually I fell away from romantic suspense,...