Victorian Suspense

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.

1850: Charles Dickens is in Manchester, performing at the Queen's Theatre with his acting group. But his career on the stage is cut short when a man is shot dead - on set. With Dickens himself caught with the gun in his hands, he is immediately arrested. Along with the help of his good friend Superintendent Sam Jones, Dickens must do all he can to find the real killer, before he is locked up for a crime he didn't commit. Can Dickens convince the authorities of his innocence? Will he unmask the true assassin?

London, 1882. Alec Lonsdale, a young reporter on the Pall Mall Gazette, is working on a story about a fatal house fire. But the postmortem on the victim produces shocking results: Patrick Donovan's death was no accident. But why would someone murder a humble shop assistant and steal part of his brain? When a second body is discovered, its throat cut, and then a third, Lonsdale and his spirited female colleague, Hulda Friederichs, begin to uncover evidence of a conspiracy that reaches to the highest echelons of Victorian society.

Lord Ackley's grand estate is on the brink of collapse, burdened by debts that imperil his family's legacy. In a last-ditch effort to save his home, he makes a Faustian bargain with the formidable Duke Manchester, trading his daughter's hand in marriage for a lifeline to solvency. Aislinn, Lord Ackley's beautiful daughter, is oblivious to the dark forces driving her family's fate. She's swept off her feet by the charming Duke Manchester, but their love is forbidden, and the consequences of discovery are deadly. As the Ackley family's secrets begin to unravel, a sinister presence lurking ...

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.

The well-educated daughter of a lawyer, Trudy Bauer, arrives at the St. Louis based Mail-Order Brides of the West agency full of excitement for an adventure of a lifetime. She befriends the agency's maid, Evie Davenport, and the two form a strong and lasting friendship. They vow to stay in contact through letters when Evie takes hold of her destiny and arranges a marriage on the sly. Each brave young woman is ready to face whatever an unknown groom and life in Montana can throw her way.

She keeps house for Inspector Witherspoon...and keeps him on his toes. Everyone's awed by his Scotland Yard successes - but they don't know about his secret weapon. No matter how messy the murder or how dirty the deed, Mrs. Jeffries's polished detection skills are up to the task...proving that behind every great man there's a woman - and that a crimesolver's work is never done. When the general office manager of Sutcliffe Manufacturing is murdered, no one is really surprised. Ronald Dearman was anything but a dear man. The tyrannical bully had more than enough enemies to go around.

In the shadow of Blackmoor Manor, secrets fester, love ignites, and danger lurks at every turn. Charlotte Waverly never imagined her simple life as a debutante would lead her into the heart of a storm. Sent to the enigmatic Blackmoor Manor to unravel the mysteries surrounding the tragic death of Isabella Ashton, Charlotte finds herself drawn to the manor’s brooding and haunted master, Gabriel Ashton, the Duke of Blackmoor. Gabriel carries the weight of a shattered past—a legacy tarnished by betrayal, loss, and whispers of a sinister plot. As enemies close in, threatening his title, his ...

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.

The scion of a noble house brought low by a storm and the lady who nurses him back to health strive to unravel a web of deception that threatens her family and forces them to fight for what they hold most dear - family, each other, and love.

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.

Seventeen-year-old Audrey Rose Wadsworth was born a lord's daughter, with a life of wealth and privilege stretched out before her. But between the social teas and silk dress fittings, she leads a forbidden secret life. Against her stern father's wishes and society's expectations, Audrey often slips away to her uncle's laboratory to study the gruesome practice of forensic medicine. When her work on a string of savagely killed corpses drags Audrey into the investigation of a serial murderer, her search for answers brings her close to her own sheltered world.

Guaranteed to capture the hearts of everyone who truly loves books, The Bookman's Tale is a former bookseller's sparkling novel and a delightful exploration of one of literature's most tantalizing mysteries with echoes of Shadow of the Wind and A.S. Byatt's Possession.

A former smuggler and thief, Ariq--better known as the Kraken King--doesn't know what to make of the clever, mysterious woman he rescues from an airship besieged by marauders. Unsure if she's a spy or a pawn in someone else's game, Ariq isn't about to let her out of his sight until he finds out.

Will a shocking mystery lead Henrietta to her one true love? Henrietta is now Lady Chaucer and her life is about to become a whole lot worse. Lord Chaucer is cruel, hate-filled, and determined to shrink her life until he has complete control. Everything she has ever dreamed about is gone in a moment. Until she wakes up the next morning in a completely different house, finds out her husband is dead – and that she had the knife. Mr. Francis Newton knows he shouldn’t be falling for Lady Chaucer, but he cannot control his heart. To make matters worse, he is the one that he found her at the ...

Tim Mason’s gripping new novel finds Inspector Charles Field hunting a ruthless serial killer who is terrorizing Florence Nightingale and her nurses in Crimea in 1855. But when the main suspect turns up dead, Field determines the case is closed. Or is it? Twelve years later in London, amidst the turmoil surrounding the expansion of voting rights, Field discovers a woman’s body, mouth covered by the killer’s signature embroidered rose. Did Field suspect the wrong man before, or is he dealing with a copycat?

Why do the fallen women in The Magdalen House refuge continue to die mysteriously? A devastating fire at Danvers’s ancestral home induces Charles to accept his brother Frederick’s plea for help with his work among fallen women and impoverished orphans in York. Charles soon finds himself struggling to identify a ruthless murderer while Antonia helps feed the women and children living in the asylum Frederick runs. The trial of notorious poisoner William Dove leads to surprising discoveries and sets legal precedent still followed today.

Lord Rivenhall and Miss Richards both have secrets they do not want society to know about. Will their secrets bring them together or keep them apart? Lord Rivenhall arrives in London with a secret he is determined to keep. When he meets Miss Richards, he cannot deny that he has a particular interest in her and is excited by the thought of seeing her again. However, he knows she is hiding something and is determined to discover the motivation behind her actions. Miss Richards knows exactly what she wants in a future husband. When she meets Lord Rivenhall, he angers her, but then she warms up...

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 ...

An ill-fated grave-robbery unearths a corpse with a most disturbing symbol on it. The very same sign is daubed in blood on the walls of Edinburgh's lunatic asylum, on the night that one of the patients is murdered. The mark in question? The mark of the devil. The prime suspect: Amy McGray, the asylum's most infamous inmate, a young woman who has grown up behind bars after she killed her parents many years ago. Her brother, Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray, knows the evidence is stacked against her. To prove her innocence, he needs the help of an old friend.