Allison asked Anna Lee Huber:

Anna, I just finished "As Death Draws Near" last night. SO, so good! I am so thankful you are planning on continuing this series; I just can't put them down! What made you decide on the setting and historical/political/religious situation for "Death Draws Near?" It was incredibly interesting, and something I was unaware of until I read the book.

Anna Lee Huber Hi Allison! So happy to hear you enjoy the Lady Darby series. I actually had the idea to have Kiera and Gage investigate the death of a nun fairly early on. There are only so many situations where Kiera as an upper-class female would be allowed to examine a dead body, particularly when the investigation is not instigated by a family member or friend, and I thought the idea of a nun being murdered sounded intriguing. However, I had to find the right way to do it. And I needed to get Kiera to an abbey, when there were almost none in the UK at that time. This meant likely sending her overseas, so it only made sense to wait until Kiera and Gage were wed, because it would have been completely scandalous for them to travel such a distance together had they not been. I considered sending them to France, but then I stumbled upon Rathfarnham Abbey just south of Dublin in Ireland and realized it was perfect. And that it would be fairly easy to get Kiera and Gage there in a timely manner. Once I started delving deeper in my research, I realized I would also have to address the political and religious climate of the era, which I found exciting because there is so much occurring there around 1831 that I had known almost nothing about. It gave me some real meaty history to explore, and the research was fascinating.

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