Victorian Thriller

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.

Sarah Bain and her friends Lord Hugh Staunton and Mick O'Reilly are crime-scene photographers for the Daily World newspaper. After solving a sensational murder, they're under pressure to deliver another big story. On a foggy summer night, they're called to the bank of the River Thames. The murder victim is an unidentified woman whose face has been slashed. But as Sarah takes photographs, she discovers that the woman is still alive.

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.

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.

Emily and Colin Hargreaves make it a rule to spend as little time as possible with her parents in Kent, but are unable to refuse Lady Catherine Bromley’s invitation to join them for a pre-Christmas party that includes the family of Ala Kapur Singh, a powerful Punjabi maharaja who has come to England after receiving the Order of the Star of India.

No one in 1840s New York likes fires, copper star Timothy Wilde least of all. After a blaze killed his parents and another left him with a terrible scar, he has avoided flames of all kinds. So when a seamstress turned arsonist threatens Robert Symmes, a corrupt tycoon high in the Tammany Hall ranks, Timothy isn’t thrilled that Symmes consults him. His dismay escalates when his audacious and charismatic older brother, Valentine, himself deeply politically entrenched, decides to run against the incumbent, who they suspect is guilty of assault and far darker crimes.

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.

While attending an exhibition at the Crystal Palace, young cook Kat Holloway is approached by a woman in distress. Lady Covington is a wealthy widow convinced that her entire family is trying to kill her. Kat feels compelled to help, so she escorts the lady home to discover whether she is delusional or in true danger. When it quickly becomes apparent that the threat is all too real, Kat promises aid.

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.

The Site of Marlborough Hall, 1903. The current Duke and Duchess of Marlborough have invited husband-and-wife sleuths Charles and Kate Sheridan to what is now Blenheim Palace, for Kate is working on a book about the age-old scandal that became known as the Marlborough Folly. But as she tries to pull together pieces of the mystery, Kate must set aside her research and lend a hand when a household maid is kidnapped—and, not long afterward, the duke and his mistress disappear. However, Kate my have set aside her work too soon.

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.

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.

Pembrokeshire, Wales, 2020. Serious illness has forced Eleanor Wilder to leave her life in London, close her antique shop and return to the family farm in Pembrokeshire. Her instinct is to hide from the world but when her parents bring her to a family reunion at the nearby house, Cliffside, she is transfixed by a set of old family photographs. One of the images is of a woman in theatrical dress, labelled ‘Esme Blood'—a name that is familiar to Eleanor through a set of Victorian tarot cards and diaries that she found through her shop.

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.

Beautiful and new in town, Ellen Langston-Jones doesn't have any enemies. So, when she's found dead in the communal gardens, Inspector Witherspoon quickly narrows the field of suspects down to one: Lucius Montague, who was seen threatening Mrs. Langston-Jones shortly before her death. The Inspector and all of London are positive that he's the killer, but Mrs. Jeffries has doubts.

Mr. James Harding was a lot of things - businessman, well-to-do, probable scoundrel - but a drinker he most assuredly was not. So when Harding is believed to have drunkenly fallen to his death into the icy River Avon, Lord William Wethington is immediately suspicious. Finding Lord William's name on a letter in the victim's pocket, the local constabulary summons William to identify the victim. Police detectives learn that William had been one of Harding's business clients - and undoubtedly not the only client the dead man had cheated.

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?

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.

Sensible Violet Manville and her very ladylike half-sister Sephora are absolutely bored, thank you very much. Though neither of them would ever admit it aloud, they're missing the thrill of playing detective. So when Violet receives a letter from A Heartbroken Mother sent to her alter-ego, the Agony Aunt known to the world only as Miss Hermione, her pulse can't help but quicken. The daughter in question has gotten caught up in a cult: the Hermetic Order of the Children of Aed.