Lawrence Goldstone (August 26, 1947) writes histories, as well as fiction. His website lists his books; we mention a few, to sketch a picture. Lawrence Goldstone wrote Inherently Unequal: The Betrayal of Equal Rights by The Supreme Court, 1865-1903 (2011), and
Dark Bargain: Slavery, Profits, and the Struggle for the Constitution (2005) just as examples.
And Goldstone wrote fiction, such as, Anatomy of Deception (2008). All this text comes from his website, which mentions this title was "A New York Times notable mystery."
'The year is 1889. In the morgue of a Philadelphia hospital, physicians uncover the corpse of a beautiful young woman. What they see takes their breath away. Within days, one doctor, Ephraim Carroll, strongly suspects that he knows the woman's identity—and the horrifying events that led to her death."' [A note of caution: There is another writer of detective books, who has the same name, but the dates: 1903-1998.]
Lawrence Goldstone's wife, Nancy Blazon Goldstone, is a writer also, and her histories have put her on a par with writers like Alison Weir. Here she is interviewed about her historical account of The Rival Queens (2015) which discusses Catherine De Medici and De Medici's daughter Marguerite.
This interview allows a glimpse of Goldstone's intellectual dimensions:
...What did you discover that is different from the other biographies [of Catherine de Medici]?
'For centuries, the prevailing opinion among historians had been that Catherine was an astute politician who maintained control of the government by cleverly employing Machiavellian principles to keep the various religious factions off balance, and that her youngest daughter was an inconsequential presence known chiefly for voracious and indiscriminate sexual behavior. More recently, however, a theory has been floated that Catherine was not power-hungry after all, merely an able administrator and disinterested leader who did the best any one could do under trying conditions. This new and more sympathetic appraisal of Catherine’s motives and abilities has not, alas, extended to reevaluating her youngest daughter’s character and political role. Margot remains conveniently dismissed on the grounds of frivolous sexuality and deplorably loose morals.
And what did you find?
'An in-depth examination of both women’s careers yields quite different results. Catherine de’ Medici was neither astute nor able—she was a train wreck. Rarely have I encountered a leader, male or female, who failed so comprehensively at the task of ruling. There is a very strong argument to be made that Catherine, first as a result of insensitivity and inexperience, and later through corruption and amorality, was primarily responsible for—indeed, kick-started—the French wars of religion, whose horrific violence devastated the kingdom for decades. (It was no accident that these wars began in the first year of Catherine’s regency and did not end until a few years after her death.) She has almost single-handedly ruined poor Machiavelli’s reputation through the centuries; if he were alive today he would almost certainly sue her for defamation of character!
'And what about Marguerite?
'Margot’s political acumen and influence, on the other hand, was far more significant than she is ever given credit for. She was the driving force behind her younger brother François’s career, as well as the glue between the Huguenot and Politique parties, whose policies were substantially more reasonable than either Catherine’s or the Catholic League’s. Without Marguerite, there would have been no viable opposition movement condemning the worst excesses of the Crown in the years immediately following the Saint Bartholomew’s Day massacre.
'But she was just a good time party girl, only interested in sleeping around, wasn’t she?
'As for the frequency of her love affairs, all I can say is that Margot’s behavior pales before that of her brother Henri III (a regular and enthusiastic participant in orgies, and a man who used sex to humiliate or eliminate his political rivals), her husband, Henry of Navarre (who loathed his wife, was never without a paramour, liked his consorts very young, and once went to war over an errant mistress), and Catherine herself, whose ladies-in-waiting (slyly nicknamed her “Flying Squadron”) were specifically employed to seduce and spy on members of the opposition party, the court, and even her own children. Unlike the other members of her family, Marguerite never used sex as a weapon, nor did she ever set a love trap for anyone, as was commonplace for her mother and brothers. One of the qualities I most admire about Margot is that she never apologized for her extramarital relationships. She believed she had as much right to happiness as any man, a very modern attitude that I find refreshing....'
The Goldtones wrote books together also. From a Google blurb we read:
'Nancy Goldstone wrote with her husband, Lawrence, five books, including "Out of the Flames"[2002], "The Friar and the Cipher: Roger Bacon and the Unsolved Mystery of the Most Unusual Manuscript in the World", [(2005)] and "Warmly Inscribed"[(2002)]....'
And, they co-authored Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore (1999)
'More than a sequel, Slightly Chipped: Footnotes in Booklore is a companion piece for Used and Rare. A delight for the general reader and book collector alike, it details the Goldstones' further explorations into the curious world of book collecting. In Slightly Chipped, they get hooked on the correspondence and couplings of Bloomsbury; they track down Bram Stoker's earliest notes for Dracula; and they are introduced to hyper-moderns. Slightly Chipped is filled with all of the anecdotes and esoterica about the world of book collecting that charmed readers of Used and Rare.'
From their book Slightly Chipped, we quote an account of what my notes indicate was a glimpse of a mystery writers association awards banquet, and which we join in the middle:
'Filled wine glasses livened up the conversation immediately. We discovered that one of Brian's and Maggie's passions was taxidermy. There is a lot about taxidermy that is not obvious to the layman.
'"I like to buy old beat-up pieces and then spruce them up with new eyeballs and new tongues," said Brian. "You can get them in catalogs. And, you know, cats' mouths especially shrivel up after a while, so you inject them with a relaxer and then restuff their lips to make them puffy again."'
Now this is a power couple: Lawrence and Nancy Goldstone. In the words of Lawrence Goldstone, in Used and Rare: Travels in the Book World (1997):
'This was the first book Nancy and I wrote together. It details our introduction into the world of used and antiquarian books—the odd bookstores we visited, the delightful booksellers we met, the out-of-print treasures we discovered. When we started, we were young and knew nothing. I’m not sure how far we’ve come since we wrote this but the journey has never been anything but wonderful.'
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