Victorian English Mystery

Harriet Andover had no intention of dying young like her silly siblings had. She intended to outlive them and outdo them as she always had. But Harriet discovers that the best intentions can lead to murder when she is strangled inside her mansion with a house full of holiday guests. As much as Inspector Witherspoon enjoys his job delivering justice, the last thing he wanted was a complicated murder case just a week before Christmas. He soon discovers that Harriet's own husband and grown stepchildren are not overcome with grief and neither are most of her friends.

Wiltshire, England – Spring 1880 Second sight - a blessing or a curse? Flora Latimer has a gift. Precognition, second sight, telepathy, call it what you will. But her status as the eldest daughter of a strictly religious and overly ambitious cleric means that her gift must go unrecognised during her dour and bleak upbringing. Eventually she escapes her crushing restrictions and the prospect of an enforced marriage to work as companion to the elderly and eccentric Dowager Countess of Swindon, where she swiftly discovers a new sense of belonging in an opulent and aristocratic rural setting....

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.

It was a most peculiar murder. A man's body was found in the canal - but the evidence showed that he had drowned in a bathtub. A theater critic known for his savage reviews, the victim had had a full cast of enemies. While Inspector Witherspoon scoured the theater, his housekeeper and unofficial sleuthing partner Mrs. Jeffries uncovered the critic's secret past: a real-life drama more compelling than any stage play.

Come with us in this collection of four novellas and one bonus short story, found only in this omnibus, to a time of gas-lit drawing rooms, and horse-drawn carriages, where child pickpockets stalk foggy streets, and all-knowing servants fill every gentleman’s house, each dwelling in a Victorian world, where for Sherlock Holmes of 221B Baker Street, the game is always afoot! Journey to a country estate, where a mysterious society of trance mediums labour together, one of whom, a beautiful young girl, claims Holmes has sent an innocent man to the gallows…. Trod down the perilous streets ...

The legend of Maggie's Bridge is well known to locals. In the late 1800's a young girl, pregnant and frightened, loses her life on a lonely bridge in a terrible storm. But what is the truth behind the story? Who was Maggie Bloxom? What fates brought her to that dark place and stole her future away from her? Claire Ludlow is a local. She grew up visiting the bridge at midnight and calling for Maggie. One night when she was 16 she sees more than she thought possible. When life draws her back to her home town years later and drops her within arms reach of the bridge, can she use newly ...

Lady Martha and Lord Weston set out to deceive London society, but when the plan goes awry, they must turn to each other. Lady Martha has had to live in the shadows of her older sister, Lady Edith, her entire life. However, that has never stopped Martha from wanting what is best for Edith. When Edith is determined to wed Lord Hobart, Martha is distraught. Something is not right about that man, and Martha believes he is hiding something sinister. Lord Weston has been dreaming of courting Edith, and when he returns to London after an extended stay at his father’s estate, he is finally ready...

Can a rogue really change his ways? The Duke has a dark past. Miss Kelling does not believe that he has changed. She finds him irritating, and she does not want to give him a minute of her time. The Duke wants to redeem himself, but his efforts are futile. However, when the Duke needs Miss Kelling’s help, can she really turn him away in his time of need?

It’s Christmastime in London, and Sherlock Holmes takes on two cases. The angelic three-year-old child of a wealthy couple is the target of a vicious kidnapper, and a country aristocrat worries that his handsome, favourite son has mysteriously vanished from his London pied à terre. Holmes and Watson, aided by the colourful Heffie O’Malley, slip slide in the ice to ensure a merry Christmas is had by nearly everybody.

April 1831, her grace Corinne Monroe wants her widowed son, Lord Julian, to marry her best friend’s daughter, Miss Sophie Wilkie. Julian last saw Sophie when she was twelve years old, silent, skinny, and always staring at him. However, his mother is nothing if not persuasive, and Julian reluctantly accompanies her to London to meet the young lady. And he knows that whatever happens isn’t going to be good. Lord Devlin Monroe, Julian’s nephew, is very fond of his intriguing reputation in society: he delights, he frightens, he brings on delicious shudders. He’s enjoying a pleasant bachelor life....

Dive into the captivating abyss of deceit, murder, and nobility with our riveting mystery novel, "Murder in the Fog". Set against the backdrop of the late 19th century London. This narrative promises a fascinating blend of suspense, investigative intrigue and unmistakable charm of aristocratic London. The story commences with Carter, a young man living with his crime fiction enthusiast aunt, and his accidental involvement in a real-life crime - the murder of Mr. Roosevelt. The plot thickens as Carter becomes embroiled in the investigation, led by Inspector Drillford and shaken by the ...

A WINNER IN DRAGONBLADE PUBLISHING'S 2021, THE WRITE STUFF COMPETITION Daphne Randall is a woman in disgrace and nothing short of a miracle can fix it. Six years ago, Daphne's divorce left her virtually penniless and entombed on a derelict estate. An inheritance frees her to pursue dreams of composing music and clearing her name from the stigma of adultery. When the scandal sheets reveal Daphne as the resident composer for the Arcadian music hall, she draws the ire of people who want her gone from London – including her former husband, Adam Randall, the Earl of Wakefield. Daphne is ...

Imagine the reaction at 221B Baker Street to a grieving widow’s claim that her late husband has fallen victim to murder, not merely once, but a second time, all within the same week! Thus begins this far-reaching novella, the forty-second title within The Continuing Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes. Venture back to 1880s England, as the world’s foremost detective and his faithful chronicler, seek answers to one of the more confusing cases ever brought to their door. What is the truth in the seeming impossibility of a man who can, not once, but twice be struck down by the cruel arm of death...

West Yorkshire, 1904. When newly graduated nurse Ruby May takes a position looking after the children of Charles and Lilian England, a wealthy couple from a powerful dynasty of mill owners, she hopes it will be the fresh start she needs. But as she adapts to life at the isolated Hardcastle House, it becomes clear there's something not quite right about the beautiful, mysterious Mrs England. Ostracised by the servants and feeling increasingly uneasy, Ruby is forced to confront her own demons in order to prevent history from repeating itself.

Matilda Hayward is determined to have a career. After all, it is 1888! While reporting for the Women’s Journal newspaper, Matilda is sent to cover the visiting Freak Show and interview Mrs Anna Tufton, a giantess. During the interview, the giantess slips a note to Matilda begging for her help to escape the show she is forced to do by her husband. But when the giantess’s husband is found murdered, the giantess is a likely suspect.

A scarred man. A mysterious secret. A courageous woman who dares to follow her heart. Earl Turner was once an arrogant cad, taking money from whomever he could, and never allowing anyone into his affections. However, one terrible night changes everything, leaving him with scars both inside and out. Lord Turner knows he needs a wife to continue the family line, but his return to society is both necessary and difficult. Miss Dorothea Earnest has been held back from society by her father, only to find that he has promised her to a scarred and broken man. When her father continues to demand ...

London, April 1891. When the severed torso of a woman washes up on the bank of the river Thames, London believes a serial killer from the past has struck again. Crime photographer and investigator Sarah Bain Barrett is on the scene with her friends Mick O’Reilly and Lord Hugh Staunton. This is their chance to solve a cold case and deliver a monster to justice, with help from Sarah’s husband Detective Sergeant Thomas Barrett; her sister Sally Albert, an intrepid newspaper reporter; and Hugh’s psychologist, Dr. Joshua Lewes, a pioneer in the new science of criminal profiling.

During an unseasonably warm September, an army captain known to Watson from his own service in Afghanistan, comes to Baker Street telling of being stalked by an assassin from the bizarre cult of “the Demon of the Mountain,” a member of a tribe of utter primitives who held this officer captive through two years of war, inflicting onto him both torments and puzzlingly extravagant honours, until the day this man was able to carry out his improbable escape, and make his way back down the unholy mountain, and return to his comrades in arms. Now back in England after so long a time away, this...

December 1864. As a cold winter wind scours the Worcestershire countryside, an excursion train comes through a tunnel in the Malvern Hills, only to be confronted by a blockage on the line ahead. The driver manages to slow the train down so that the impact is minimised, but the passengers are alarmed. The first person to alight is Cyril Hubbleday, the man in charge of the excursion. He walks to the front of the locomotive—and, as he is talking to the driver, fireman and guard, he is shot dead by a sniper.

When Inspector Witherspoon becomes the main suspect in a murder case, Scotland Yard refuses to let him investigate. But no one said anything about Mrs. Jeffries and her polished detection skills, proving that behind every great man there's a woman - and that a crime solver's work is never done.