Victorian English Mystery

Life in 1881 San Francisco is difficult if you are a poor widow like Mrs. O’Malley, especially when you have seven children and are forced to live in one of the crowded neighborhoods South of Market. Late one night, as she sat at the window of her crowded flat, sewing and worrying, she noticed something strange going on across the street. Her decision to investigate will have unexpected consequences.

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor in rural Oxfordshire. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity. But by the time their stay is over, one woman has been shot dead while another has disappeared; a priceless heirloom is missing; and Edward Radcliffe’s life is in ruins. Over 150 years later, Elodie Winslow, a young archivist in London, uncovers a leather satchel containing two seemingly unrelated items.

October 1891. A stranger is discovered hanging from a tree in the Malvern Hills. Detective Inspector Ravenscroft and Constable Crabb are called in to investigate. But how can they solve the murder if no one can identify the victim? Whoever killed the man must have really wanted him dead—they strung him up and watched as he suffocated. This may be the most dangerous case Ravenscroft has ever worked. Will the Herefordshire Hangmen ever be brought to justice?

Olivia Grace Fosterson is a country girl who lives on a farm with her parents and her best friend, Bart. Bart would do anything for her: hunt rabbits, round up the cows, and offer sloppy, wet kisses when she's feeling sad. Bart is a loyal dog. But Ollie has another friend. Lawrence is much taller, and his kisses aren't so sloppy. They are tantalizing. Soft. Urgent. Lawrence is every bit as loyal as Bart. One day Olivia's idyllic existence is shattered when she is whisked away by a man: the dark, arrogant, and devastatingly handsome Grant Thatcher. He spirits her away to the headquarters of ...

The House on Thornhallow Moor (Book One of the Between Heartbeats Series) On the wind-swept cliffs overlooking Blackwater Hollow stands Thornhallow Moor—a house bound by secrets older than the sea. When Clara Wren returns to the neglected Victorian estate of her childhood, she expects memories, perhaps even closure. But the house has waited patiently for her arrival, harboring more than just dust and echoes of the past. Whispers drift through empty rooms, footprints glisten with seawater, and in the shadows stands Silas Vale—a ship’s captain lost to a storm over a century ago. Bound ...

A recipe for intrigue and love: A young woman determined to find her father’s killer. An agent of the Crown who's obligated to protect her. Miss Marcie Woodforde’s nightmare begins when her father is shot by a traitor. Only moments before he dies, he charges Marcie to find the Earl of Campden and warn him that his life is in imminent danger. As luck would have it, she encounters Campden at an inn in Dover when he saves her from the advances of a drunkard. Afterwards, she refuses to docilely accept the Earl’s word to find her father’s killer. Instead, she defies the Earl and pursues ...

A severely mutilated body left beside the river near a bucolic village becomes the starting point for one of Sherlock Holmes’ most bizarre and disturbing cases, as the world’s foremost consulting detective departs from London to begin an investigation, that soon delves into what truly lies below the surface of idyllic country life, and uncovers a violation of one of mankind’s deepest and oldest taboos, in The Eaters of Men, the forty-fifth tale in C. Thorne’s The Continuing Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes!

This short story, set in 1879 San Francisco, features two elderly dressmakers, Miss Minnie and Miss Millie Moffet, who face a moral dilemma of no small dimensions. They turn for advice to Annie Fuller, a widowed boardinghouse owner who supplements her income as a clairvoyant, Madam Sibyl.

Minnie is desperate. Her fiancé Samuel has been missing for over a week, and it's not like him to just disappear. Heightening her worry is the fact that, citing a small financial issue, he just will not settle on a wedding date. Is it really due to money, or is he getting cold feet? She tries a little investigative work with the help of her friends, but is horrified when a visit to talk with Samuel's stockbroker, ends up with them discovering the man's dead body. What on earth has Samuel got himself involved with? Samuel adores Minnie. But how can he marry her when most of his inheritance ...

The eccentric Olive Kettering swore someone was trying to harm her. Too bad no one listened, though plenty wanted her dead. When Olive is shot and killed, Mrs. Jeffries has no problem speaking her mind to see justice served.

After almost a year of marriage, amateur sleuths Lord William and Lady Amy have put aside their investigating skills to prepare for their first child. It would be an easy thing, except dead bodies are once again popping up.

Orlando Edison is a stockbroker using London's infatuation with foreign mining ventures to make a fortune. He has curried favor with the nation's most respected aristocrats, even inviting three influential investors - known as the Merry Gentlemen - to be part of his latest enterprise. Edison is welcomed in the highest circles and moves with ease among the rich and powerful. But a few days before Christmas, he is found murdered.

Sassy socialite Grace Stotesbury has plans for her future. None include marriage, murder or blackmail. Nor do they include the dashing, ex-naval commander, Lord Lexington—now a charismatic Private Investigator who sets her heart pumping and skin tingling. The nerve of him. She is the last person to see the murder victim alive—in an argument in a ballroom full of witnesses. Her situation worsens when she becomes the latest victim of an audacious blackmailer, someone who is privy to her most damning secrets. Can she work with Lexington to clear her name and catch the blackmailer? Will ...

Worcester, April 1893. Detective Inspector Ravenscroft receives a strange note from a lonely old woman fearing for her life. But when he visits her, she is already dead. Did Miss Maud Fincher's heart give out or was she scared to death? Maud Fincher was part of a group of locals trying to speak to their deceased loved ones through the medium of séance. Ravenscroft thinks this is harmless nonsense . . . until the old lady's last surviving heir is murdered.

Ranulf Briquessart, Viscount Briquessart of Rutledge, was dead. This truth was as undeniable as the noonday sun. Tragically his death had been preceded by that of his wife, a beauty of Spanish nobility who was descended from the ancient Counts of Castile. These deaths were sadly followed by that of their only son, even before the honors and titles could be bestowed. Now there was a card upon the table at 221B Baker Street from Lady Magdalena, the last surviving child of Sir Ranulf. The recently elevated Viscountess Briquessart requested the presence of Mr. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John ...

In Bloody Lessons, it's the winter of 1880, and the teachers of San Francisco are under attack: their salaries slashed and their competency and morals questioned in a series of poison pen letters. Annie Fuller, the reluctant clairvoyant, has been called in to investigate by Nate Dawson, her lawyer beau. The case becomes personal when they discover that Laura, Nate's sister, may be one of the teachers targeted for attack.

After the final curtain of Swan Lake, an animated crowd exits the Mariinsky theatre brimming with excitement from the night's performance. But outside, the scene is somber. A ballerina's body lies face down in the snow, blood splattered like rose petals over the costume of the Swan Queen. The crowd is silenced by a single cry - "Nemetseva is dead!" When the dead ballerina's aristocratic lover comes begging for justice, Emily must apply her own set of skills to discover the rising star's murderer.

Lord Charles Danvers, still mourning his lost love Charlotte, hopes to escape from his ghosts at the gala coming-of-age celebrations for the son of his oldest friend. All is jubilation and proper respectability until the evening is shattered by a brutal murder. The police are quick to point to a quarrelsome farmer, but Danvers has his doubts. Is the real culprit much closer to home? And does Danvers owe the greater loyalty to an old friend or to the truth? Then, Danver is even more unsettled by the entrance of the alluring Lady Antonia Hoover. The first in the Lord Danvers Investigates ...

Ledbury, December 1892. Detective Inspector Ravenscroft looks forward to spending a quiet Christmas with his family. Then he receives news that an old friend stands accused of a brutal murder. Ravenscroft and Detective Sergeant Crabb travel to the old Worcestershire market town of Bromsgrove to investigate. But events soon take a deadly dramatic turn. As the bad weather closes in on the two detectives, Ravenscroft begins to wonder whether they will make it home for Christmas.

When Mycroft Holmes visits his brother, Sherlock, at 221b Baker Street, it is certain to both Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson, M.D. that something monumental is at hand. They are astonished -- not to say skeptical -- to learn that Mycroft merely wants his brother to investigate the theft of a necklace. Lord Benedict Leveson-Gower, soon to be called as ambassador to the Kingdom of Romania, is accused by his wife, the lady Allegra, of replacing her very expensive, prize necklace with a paste imitation. If possible, Mycroft wants his brother to exonerate Lord Benedict Leveson-Gower of the ...