Historical Romance Women Sleuths

It's 1959, and Judy Cooper, the Black Stiletto, sets out to confront a dangerous gangster known as the heroin king of Harlem, when the teenage daughter of her beloved martial arts instructor ends up a prisoner in an uptown narcotics den. The Stiletto has troubles of her own - a shady filmmaker is threatening to reveal her identity to the world - a close friend of her landlord and substitute father may be in cahoots with the Harlem criminals - she's fighting for racial equality - and she has fallen in love again....

Los Angeles, 1908. Ex-heiress Anna Blanc is precariously employed by the Los Angeles Police Department, reforming delinquent children and minding lady jailbirds. Badly. What she really wants is to trap criminals and be alone with the delicious Detective Joe Singer—both pursuits that could get her fired. If she loses her income, she’ll be on the street. While hunting truants in Griffith Park, Anna and Joe discover the body of a young John Doe. With Anna’s job on the line, Joe warns her away, but Anna can't resist. She's on the case.

May, 1942 - Regan O'Reilly comes from a long line of police officers. She would have followed her father and brother into the force but women officers are rare and usually relegated to the status of social workers. Now she's a private investigator with her own agency and the freedom to live her life the way she wants. That is until she meets widower Mark Harris and his delightful son, Patrick, who have plans of their own for Regan.

When Lady Theodora Neale’s papa dies, a volume guarded by her family for generations comes into her possession - and with it, a sacred duty. Lady Theo is determined to honor her papa’s deathbed request to carry out missions directed by the esteemed Lord Archbroke. But when Archbroke suggests they enter into a feigned courtship, Lady Theo is blindsided. She’s willing to put her life on the line for the Crown, but no one said anything about risking her heart!

Fresh out of the hospital and low on funds, a young doctor decides to take a long sea voyage to restore his health. He signs on as a steward on board a millionaire's yacht. Then, one hot and humid summer night, the voyage starts to become a nightmare.

In the seaside town of Temple Regis, seagulls are wheeling overhead and the holidays are getting close. And then the body of political candidate Odile Clifford is discovered on the balcony of the lighthouse. Fearless Riviera Express reporter Judy Dimont goes in search of the killer - but who is it? And where will they strike next?

Meet Nancy Youngblood, a blithe and vivid heroine of an investigating disposition. When Nancy inherits a minor interest in a factory soon to become vital to the winning of World War II, she sees it as a chance to get closer to Robert Dalhart, who has taken over the factory on his father's death. Nancy has always loved him but because they grew up together on the same block Robert thinks of her as a kid sister. But soon sabotage, murder, and strikes threaten the plant and Robert - who evidence suggests may be the culprit, perhaps as an agent of the German government.

Twenty-one-year-old Katie Porter is beginning a career as a newspaper reporter for her local paper. Her first assignment is to cover the debutante party of a close friend, but she soon finds herself investigating a complicated mystery from her past, one that could affect her future. Will she be ready for intrigue, spies, codes, and even possibly a romance?

Beatrice Steele has none of the accomplishments of a true lady: she is terrible at needlework, has no musical ability, and her artwork is so bad it frightens people. Little does anyone know that Beatrice also harbours a dark secret: an obsession with the true crime cases she reads about in the newspaper. For her family's sake, she's vowed to put this most unladylike obsession behind her. Eligible bachelor Edmund Croaksworth is set to attend the autumnal ball, and the Steele family hopes that Louisa will steal his heart.

At Castle Kintochlochie, deep in the wild and windswept Highlands, Society debutante Ophelia is determined to wed wildly unsuitable estate manager Hamish, and nothing is going to stand in her way. Not her vastly disapproving mother. Not the unexpected arrival of Hamish’s vampish former fiancée. Nor the fact that someone is sending her poison pen letters, warning against the marriage. But then accidents start befalling those she loves. And her dear little terrier, Pudding, goes missing. Someone will stop at nothing to prevent Ophelia walking down the aisle.

Italy, 1932 - Mussolini's Italy is growing from strength to strength, but at what cost? One bright autumn morning, architect Isabella Berotti sits at a café in the vibrant centre of Bellina when a woman she's never met asks her to watch her 10-year-old daughter, just for a moment. Reluctantly Isabella agrees - and then watches in horror as the woman climbs to the top of the town's clock tower and steps over the edge.

For holidaymakers it’s a glorious time of breathtaking scenery, picnics on beaches, and flocks of tourists on their summertime holidays. But for Miss Judy Dimont, this is all a trifle dull. As a reporter for local rag, The Riviera Express, she needs scandal and intrigue - and one morning, as the clock strikes the quarter hour, she gets it. A woman has been shot dead in one of Buntorama’s upmarket holiday huts, the toffee-nosed rival hotelier next door is rubbing his hands with glee, and Judy and her trusty moped, Herbert, are off like a shot to survey the scene of the crime.

1912, London. Jessie Kenton hears her young brother, Georgie, scream in the middle of the night and wakes up the next morning to find him gone. Her parents never speak of him again. 1932. Twenty years later, Jessie is haunted by the same nightmare. Her other brother, Timothy, has inexplicably vanished from her parents' home. Wracked by guilt because of her failure to ever find Georgie, and convinced that the two events must be related, she sets out on a quest to find Timothy. She plunges into a mysterious world of seances and mystics, nebulous clues and Egyptian artifacts.

Olivia Sheldon has travelled across the world to marry a man she does not love. Reluctant to leave England but coerced into the marriage, Olivia's reward is being reunited with her estranged sister, Clara. Her punishment is falling impossibly and illicitly in love with the enigmatic Captain Edward Bertram. Then one scorching day Clara is abducted from Alexandria's busiest street. Desperate to find her sister - and the truth about her disappearance - Olivia becomes embroiled in Egypt's shadowy underworld, risking both her life and future with Edward.

London 1923: Nelly is an upper-class successful single independent professional woman in her early thirties who needs to find Henry, the man who is behind her family's tragedy and has tarnished their reputation. Henry holds the key to her past and is her only link to finding her last living relative. Her journey leads her on a quest of self-discovery and triumph as she learns to overcome her feelings of guilt and inadequacy. But one more obstacle threatens her happiness.

It is 1961 in the fourth audiobook of the Black Stiletto series. Judy, the Stiletto, meets Leo, a charismatic man who convinces her to move to Los Angeles when she is "run out" of New York by increasingly hazardous police heat. But soon Judy suspects that Leo is not the white knight she first thought. Leo, who has connections with the West Coast mobs, has plenty of skeletons in his closet. His mysterious sister, Christina, who once served time for armed robbery, could also be a threat to the Stiletto's new life in California.

It's a warm August morning in 1926 Los Angeles, California. Mercedes Louise Allcutt (Mercy to her friends) is thrilled to be going to her job as secretary to private investigator Ernie Templeton - until she opens the door and discovers her mother on the doorstep. Known to her friends as Honoria and her daughters as The Wrath of God, Mrs. Allcutt is the very last person earth whom Mercy wants to see, barring a couple of coldblooded murderers she's met in the past few weeks.

A voice from beyond the grave! "You are going to die here," I heard myself say - but of course there was no one to hear. The door to this black and airless place had slammed shut behind me, shoved by an unknown hand...Yet even so, in my mind it seemed I could hear the sound of laughter...Lisa's laughter...Lisa, who had lured me here...Lisa, who would now have company in the grave.

Jane Austen—sparkling, spirited and incredibly clever—is suddenly thrust into a mystery when a milliner’s dead body is found locked inside a cupboard during the middle of a ball. When Jane’s brother Georgie is found with some jewellery that belonged to the deceased, the local officials see it as an open-and-shut case, one which is likely to end with Georgie’s death. Jane is certain that her brother is innocent, and that there is much more to the murder than meets the eye.

Passion. Intrigue. Love. London’s high society loves nothing more than a scandal. When the personal secretary of the visiting Prince Sebastian is found murdered, it’s all anyone can talk about. The prince will have to decide what comes first - his country or his heart.