BEACH READING
Marne Davis Kellogg’s books are all about rich and famous people getting into trouble in some of the world’s most glamorous destinations, with mouth-drooling details on fine food, wine, and jewelry. “They’re very delicious and fattening,” says Kellogg, a member of Town Point Club in Norfolk, Virginia. “Complete escape books.” She says mystery readers are smarter than the average reader (“They don’t take anything on faith”), so she eagerly embarks on the international research required. Her latest novel, Friends in High Places, is set in Provence, London, and Lago d’Orta, Italy. Her 10th book in just 11 years, it’s the fourth in a series about jewel thief Kick Keswick. The novelist says she travels with a journal rather than a laptop and writes only in the morning. She then slips into her role as co-partner, alongside husband Peter (also a Town Point member), to run the Kellogg Organization, a leading national/international fundraising counseling firm with clients such as the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, African Wildlife Foundation, and St. Martin-in-the-Fields. Kellogg’s next project keeps her on domestic soil; she’s writing a classic mystery set in Northern California. — Mary Sue Lawrence

Photography Patricia Barry Levy.