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When you write historical novels, you have to research the clothes your characters wore, the foods they ate, the slang they used.

And the ways they punched each other.

I’m no Tom Clancy, but I do write murder mysteries, and from time to time, people get into fights. Did people fight the same way 100 years ago, or 200 years ago?

If you’re old enough, you remember the 1970s TV show “Kung Fu,” about a martial arts practitioner in the Old West. As I was writing my Edwardian-era series fearing suffragette Lady Frances Ffolkes, I wondered just when Asian martial arts made their way to Europe. Could I realistically give my early 20th-century characters martial arts knowledge?

Yes, I could! Not only had Japanese practitioners opened a jiu-jitsu school in London, but they were known to have accepted female students. I could accurately give my five-foot-tall heroine martial arts skills, and I had a lot of fun describing how she took down a very surprised opponent.

My next novel, “Winter’s Season,” goes back even further, to the Regency era, around the time “Pride and Prejudice” was published. Jane Austen wasn’t known for her action scenes, but my protagonist, Captain Edmund Winter, comes from the battlefields of the Napoleonic Wars to solve crimes on London’s darkest streets. How would he fight?

Actually, Asia doesn’t have a monopoly on unarmed fighting. The French developed a form of kickboxing called “savate,” which goes back to the 17th century. During the wars, Captain Winter, fluent in French, is put in charge of some French POWs and sees them practicing. They’re happy to teach him for the chance to kick and punch an English officer. Like Lady Frances, Captain Winter surprises his opponents—and hopefully my readers!

My most recent heroine is architect Wren Fontaine, who lives in an intellectual world. Fortunately, her girlfriend, Hadley Vanderwerf, has led a livelier life and has a lot more street smarts than Wren.

In “The Greenleaf Murders,” when they’re about to confront a possible killer, Hadley says, “We’re set—I have a can of pepper spray in my bag.”

“Why?” asks Wren.

“Oh, Wren,” says Hadley, “you lead such a more wholesome life than I do.”