Victorian Suspense

Would you give up everything for the one you love? This heartwarming Regency romance collection is filled with mystery, suspense, and of course, love. Diamonds of the Marquess Lady Emily Dove doesn’t know whom to trust. Her true identity must never be known. Promise of the Earl A scarred man. A mysterious secret. A courageous woman who dares to follow her heart. Entangled with the Viscount Lady Ashton and Lord Johnston must trust only each other to work their way out of a dark mystery, and perhaps allow their hearts to become entangled in the process. The Duke’s Bidding Lord March is ...

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...

Historical Adventure Novel set in the remote Northern Rockies during the late 19th century. In the rugged wilderness of the northern Rockies, Corporal David Dexter of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police embarks on what he believes to be a routine patrol. The discovery of his fellow officer, Constable Tommy Graves, brutally murdered, sets off a chain of events that plunges Dexter into a web of deceit, danger, and secrecy. Determined to find his comrade's killer, Dexter explores the clues left behind, including a photograph of the notorious criminal "Pink" Crill. His investigation leads him to ...

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.

Miss Lucinda Williams has very rarely felt happiness. With an overbearing father dictating her every move, she finds herself longing for just a moment of freedom. When she meets Lord Wiltshire, a viscount and gentleman, Lucinda finds herself immediately drawn to him – but her father, instead, pushes her towards the arrogant Viscount Astley. When she continues to enjoy the company of Lord Wiltshire, much to her horror, he suffers a dreadful accident which she is certain is Lord Astley's doing. Fearing for Lord Wiltshire’s safety, Lucinda pulls back from their acquaintance and resigns ...

London, June 1860: When an assassination attempt is made on Queen Victoria, and a petty thief is gruesomely murdered moments later - and only a block away - Chief Detective Inspector Charles Field quickly surmises that these crimes are connected to an even more sinister plot. Was Victoria really the assassin's target? Are those closest to the Crown hiding something? Soon, Field's investigation exposes a shocking conspiracy in which the publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species sets off a string of murders, arson, kidnapping, and the pursuit of a diabolical madman.

Stacie - Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh - is adamant marriage is not for her. Wealthy and well-born, she needs for nothing, and with marriage off the table, to give her life purpose, she embarks on a plan to further the careers of emerging local musicians by introducing them to the ton via a series of musical evenings. Yet despite her noble status, Stacie requires a musical lure to tempt the haut ton to her events, and only one musician commands sufficient cachet - the reclusive and notoriously reluctant Marquess of Albury.

The Rayne family is trapped in a rut of bad luck. And now, it's up to Lady Theodosia Rayne to steal back the Theodosia sword, a gladius that was pilfered by the rival, loathed Renshaw family. Hopefully, recovering the stolen sword will break the cycle and reverse her family's fate. Damian Renshaw, the Duke of Devlin, is feared by all - all, that is, except Lady Theodosia, the brazen spitfire who enters his home and wrestles an ancient relic from his wall.

When Miss Cara Di Abaccio is accused of stealing the Carisbrook emeralds by the infamously arrogant Lady Carisbrook and marched out of her guardian's house by Scotland Yard's finest, Barnaby Adair's cousin Hugo Adair takes umbrage and descends on Scotland Yard, breathing fire in Cara's defense. Hugo discovers Inspector Stokes has been assigned to the case, and after surveying the evidence thus far, Stokes calls in his big guns when it comes to dealing with investigations in the ton - namely, the Honorable Barnaby Adair and his wife, Penelope.

Nobody comes to a brothel seeking a true story. But you will want to learn the truth about Aimée Bonnard, the best-paid woman in Galveston. Formerly known as Yvonne LaCroix, Aimée arrives on the Island in the summer of 1898. She’s looking for work in a high-end brothel, but she is also outrunning the consequences of a deadly night in New Orleans–a night in which a rival prostitute lost her life. Mistress of deception, Aimée charms and entices her way into an existence of extravagance and adventure in one of the most exclusive brothels of Galveston.

The road to true love is made rocky with horse thieves, highwaymen, former fiances, and a very determined Bow Street Runner. "Melanie Jackson is a talent to watch." —WritersWrite.com With the letter breaking his engagement, Stephan Kirton's hopes for respectability and happiness went up in smoke. It was inevitable that his travels abroad and "interaction with the lower classes" would put him beyond the scope of polite society. That and he was born a bastard. Ormstead Park was a place for dancing and flirting, for drinking and gambling, and for less innocent sports. It was a place where he...

Under a bundle of mistletoe, art collector Daniel McCourt lies with his throat slit, a bloody sword next to his body. Inspector Witherspoon is determined to solve the case - preferably before the eggnog is ladled out on Christmas Eve - but of course he will require assistance from the always sharp-witted housekeeper, Mrs. Jeffries, who has a few of her own theories on why McCourt had to die by the sword.

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.

When young cook Kat Holloway learns that the children of London's Foundling Hospital are mysteriously disappearing and one of their nurses has been murdered, she can't turn away. She enlists the help of her charming and enigmatic confidant Daniel McAdam, who has ties to Scotland Yard, and Errol Fielding, a disreputable man from Daniel’s troubled past, to bring the killer to justice. Their investigation takes them from the grandeur of Mayfair to the slums of the East End, during which Kat learns more about Daniel and his circumstances than she ever could have imagined.

Successful businessman Jeremy Marks wasn't highly regarded by any of the members of the West London Archery Club. Most of them considered him a buffoon and a bore. But everyone was stunned when the fellow was murdered during a lull in the club's annual archery competition. He'd been shot with arrows from a longbow during a raging thunderstorm. But those who knew Marks well understood that the unkempt "court jester" persona adopted by the late, unlamented man was as fake as the smile he wore.

In 1903, tensions between Britain and Germany are starting to loom over Europe, something that has not gone unnoticed by Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves. An agent of the Crown, Colin carries the weight of the empire, but his focus is drawn to Italy by a series of burglaries at his daughter’s palazzo in Florence - burglaries that might have international ramifications. He and Emily travel to Tuscany where, soon after their arrival, a stranger is thrown to his death from the roof onto the marble palazzo floor.

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.

“What an irony it is that what would turn out to be among my friend Sherlock Holmes’ oddest cases began with a seaside holiday….” So commences the reminiscence of Dr. John H. Watson, as he relates a serpentine tale dubbed “The Haunting of the Jersey Lily,” in which he and Holmes are unexpectedly wrapped up in a mystery that seems to have its beginnings in what the famed client insists was no less than a visitation from a man she knew to be dead. With a scene that shifts from Cornwall, to the north of the nation, and back again to the crowded avenues of Victoria’s London, the ...

Christopher Cynster has finally accepted that to have the life he wants, he needs a wife, but before he can even think of searching for the right lady, he’s drawn into an investigation into the distribution of counterfeit banknotes. London born and bred, Ellen Martingale is battling to preserve the fiction that her much-loved uncle, Christopher’s neighbor, still has his wits about him, but Christopher’s questions regarding nearby Goffard Hall trigger her suspicions. As her younger brother attends card parties at the Hall, she feels compelled to investigate.

Ghost stories date back centuries, but those written in the Victorian era have a unique atmosphere and dark beauty. Michael Sims, whose previous Victorian collections Dracula’s Guest (vampires) and The Dead Witness (detectives) have been widely praised, has gathered twelve of the best stories about humanity’s oldest supernatural obsession. The Phantom Coach includes tales by a surprising and often legendary cast, including Charles Dickens, Margaret Oliphant, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as lost gems by forgotten masters such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and W. F. Harvey. Amelia B. Edwards’s chilling story gives the collection its title, while Ambrose Bierce ("The Moonlit Road"), Elizabeth Gaskell ("The Old Nurse’s Story"), and W. W. Jacobs ("The Monkey’s Paw") will turn you white as a sheet. With a skillful introduction to the genre and notes on each story by Sims, The Phantom Coach is a spectacular collection of ghostly Victorian thrills.