Victorian Suspense

A Secret Identity and a Mystery that Unravels to Reveal Something Sinister. Miss Charlotte James despises being forced to search for a suitable husband, much preferring to use her wits rather than batting her eyelashes. Finding an injured gentleman in the park, she immediately goes to his aid, taking him back to her brother’s house. The injured gentleman will not tell Charlotte anything, not even his name. Despite her frustration, Charlotte cannot remove him from her mind. ******** Lord Glenister is extremely grateful for Charlotte’s kindness, but he must keep his identity unknown. ...

In Secrets of the Nile, Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, have joined his formidable mother on a holiday to visit the exotic treasures of Egypt. Their host, Lord Bertram Deeley, is a renowned amateur British collector of antiquities, who has invited his closest friends on a lavish cruise up the Nile to his home at Luxor. But on the first night of their journey, he suddenly collapses after offering a welcome toast, a victim of the lethal poison cyanide. Who amongst this group of his nearest and dearest would want to kill their generous host?

A Noble Hearts Regency Romance When danger entangles Maggie Winters and Maxwell Wilde into a treacherous game can they survive the darkness to embrace love’s light? A widow with a tragic past… Maggie Winters had everything she always wished for — betrothed to the man of her dreams, a loving home, and a new puppy. But it all changes when her parents die, and her new guardian sweeps Maggie from town and forces her to marry a stranger to pay his debts. When she suddenly finds herself a widow and free of an unhappy marriage, can she finally find the love she's dreamed of? A hero with a ...

Sebastian Kennett is a self-made man-passionate, adventurous, and powerful; a master trader and international shipper; a man who'll risk everything for a profit. Jess Whitby grew up on the mean streets of the East End. Her father's a fine rogue and sometime smuggler. His canny trading and her brilliant management have built them a fortune. Then one of Sebastian's ships goes down and a traitor is to blame. All the Whitbys' money won't protect Jess's father from an accusation of treason.

Arlette Montrose Banfield angered many marriageable women when she snagged the handsome Lewis Banfield - but were they angry enough to poison her? Mrs. Jeffries doesn't mind getting her hands dirty to uncover the greed behind her murder.

After an odd encounter at a grand masquerade ball, Lady Emily becomes embroiled in the murder investigation of one of the guests, a sometime actress trying to pass herself off as the mysterious heiress and world traveler Estella Lamar. Each small discovery, however, leads to more questions. Was the intended victim Miss Lamar or the imposter? And who would want either of them dead?

Two bodies have been found in a park in the fashionable London neighborhood of Callander Square. While Inspector Thomas Pitt is fighting to get the square’s aristocratic residents to speak with him, his pretty, well-born wife, Charlotte, decides to do some detective work of her own. Soon she is unearthing secrets in every house on the square, while Thomas tries to discover what would drive a person to murder.

When a Hungarian immigrant is dismembered near London's River Thames, Commander Monk is called to the eerie scene, where 16 candles surround the corpse. As identical murders pop up around the city, Monk confronts the unsettling options: could it be the work of a secret society? A serial madman? Or is a xenophobic Brit targeting foreigners? A local doctor who speaks Hungarian from his days on the battlefield may be able to help, but his own struggles with post-traumatic stress have left his memory in shambles.

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....

Venturing into the bustling city was her family's last hope to save their struggling farm. Little did she know that fate had other plans. In New York, Lillian Guilford loses her job at a textile mill and takes on a daring disguise to secure a new position as an author of Penny Bloods. Her gripping tales provide both escape and livelihood, but her success comes at a cost. Lillian must navigate a precarious balancing act, concealing her true identity while being drawn to the handsome owner of the publishing house, Apollo Donovan. Shadows lurk on the edges of her life, threatening to unravel ...

London, 1890. In Victorian London, reporter Jennie Quinn employs deception as a weapon. Going undercover to seek justice for a murdered informant, she's drawn into a powerful criminal's seductive game of cat and mouse. Enigmatic former lawman Matthew Colton is as dangerous as he is clever, but the passion in his kiss is too tempting to resist. She aches to trust him, but she will not abandon her quest for the truth. Colton is a man with secrets of his own. Thirsting for vengeance, the disgraced Scotland Yard detective has infiltrated the criminal world he's vowed to destroy.

Can love truly overcome anything? The ‘Shadows’ are now all wed and settled – save for one. Lady Ann is the only one left unmarried, feeling alone and set apart from the others. It is just as well that she has found herself sought out by Lady Sapphira. The lady is desperate for the ‘Shadows’ to help her discover who has been sending her poison pen letters, finding each one more distressing than the last. Throwing herself headlong into solving the puzzle and protecting Lady Sapphira, Ann cannot help but notice one particular acquaintance, Lord Aldridge. But can she really allow her...

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.

William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition, in which his remaining men only survived by eating their dead comrades, he returned in disgrace. Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same frozen waters. Perhaps this is Day’s chance to restore his tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens­—the man who’s haunted his whole life—back home. But when the rescue mission becomes an uncanny journey into his past, Day must face up to the things he’s­ done.

London, 1866. Móirín Donnelly has spent the last five years working in the shadows for the Dread Penny Society, a secret fraternity of penny dreadful authors who use their profits, influence, and street smarts to protect the poor and vulnerable of Victorian London. But spending so much of her life in secret is taking its toll on her soul—and her heart. When members of the Dread Penny Society begin disappearing, Móirín turns to her friend Detective Constable Fitzgerald Parkington for help.

She lost her heart to a vampire. Will she lose her life too? Juniper is a witch, hidden amid the gas lamps of Victorian society, who knows the bloody shape of the future. When she is imprisoned in a vampire's lair alongside an officer from Scotland Yard, she faces his interrogation about a murder that rocked the front page of newspapers around the globe. She knows that he sees her as a courtesan with dangerous social ambitions, but the truth would scandalize him more. It is a story of outcasts, warlocks, werewolves, finishing schools, dark prophecies, and supernatural threats that he won't ...

Mirabelle Daws traveled all the way from Australia to Sheridan Square to visit her sister - only to die in the middle of a locked garden. All the residents of Sheridan Square have a key to the garden - but no one seemed to know that Mirabelle was planning to arrive. So the question facing Mrs. Jeffries is: Who wanted to make sure that Mirabelle's visit was very, very short-lived?

Follow these lovely Daughters of Devonshire on their journey to discovering true love Books in this collection: Lady of His Dreams The Heart of a Lady A Lady's Melody Worthy of a Lady Author's Note: These are all clean short stories with a HEA.

It is the summer of 1871 when Scotland Yard's Inspector Ben Ross pays a visit to Jacob Jacobus, the old rogue of Limehouse: infamous antiquarian, friend to villains, and informer to the police. Ben hopes to glean information about any burglaries that might take place now that the wealthiest echelons of society are back in London for the season.

Mail-order-bride-to-be Heather Stanford dreads the day the matron of the St. Louis bridal agency finds her a husband and sends her west. Heather actually has no desire to marry; she just wants to free her struggling family from the financial burden of another mouth to feed. Still, she holds true to her plan when the fateful day arrives and Mrs. Seymour sings the praises of her prospective groom.