Esther Knight studied economics, and alongside it took courses in Old English and translation.

Her family came from Poland. But her grandmother always insisted that before Poland they came from Spain — that her people had left in 1492. Esther has looked for proof and never found any.

It didn't matter. Sepharad was already in her bones.

As a young girl she read Ivanhoe and loved Rebecca so much that she modeled her own heroine, Rebecca DeToledo, after her. She set her in Spain, in Toledo's golden years.

The books are cozy murder mysteries, with slow burn romance running through the series. 

Esther's research runs deep — from medieval healing to royal politics — and those details are woven into every page. She has walked the streets of Toledo, Seville, Granada, and Córdoba to get what internet research will never give: the light, the distances, the feel of the place.

Because she wants readers to enjoy both the mystery and the history, each book ends with a glossary explaining the people, customs, and terms they'll encounter along the way.

She lives with her husband, and while she waits on grandchildren she occasionally walks her granddog, Laurie.