Historical Detective

Kate Ardleigh is everything the Victorian English gentlewoman is not - outspoken, free-thinking, American...and a writer of the frowned upon penny dreadfuls. Soon after her arrival in Essex, England, a body is unearthed in a nearby archeological dig - and Kate has the chance to not only research her latest story but to begin her first case with amateur detective Sir Charles Sheridan.

Selling two million copies in earlier editions, this is the second of the rediscovered Sherlock Holmes adventures. "Acquired" from a widow whose husband was descended from the distaff side of Holmes's family, this mystery finds Holmes solving a double murder in London's theater district.

In this sci-fi thriller short story, L.A.'s hard-boiled, World War II-era private detective Geno Richter faces down a new paranormal Nazi enemy, one that he must stop before it can deal a deadly blow to the American war effort. After narrowly surviving a fight with a vicious Nazi thug, Geno Richter soon learns he's on the trail of a dangerous, racist-inspired assassination plot. But then the mystery deepens as Richter encounters a Nazi agent whose evil talents are unlike anything he has ever seen or imagined. In addition to his tough, no-nonsense approach, Richter has a few tricks of his ...

It's early 1938, and Maisie Dobbs is back in England. On a fine yet chilly morning, as she walks toward Fitzroy Square - a place of many memories - she is intercepted by Brian Huntley and Robert MacFarlane of the Secret Service. The German government has agreed to release a British subject from prison, but only if he is handed over to a family member. Because the man's wife is bedridden and his daughter has been killed in an accident, the Secret Service wants Maisie - who bears a striking resemblance to the daughter - to retrieve the man from Dachau....

Detective Inspector Ian Hamilton is no stranger to Edinburgh's darkest crimes. Scarred by the mysterious fire that killed his parents, he faces his toughest case yet when a young man is found strangled in Holyrood Park. With little evidence aside from a strange playing card found on the body, Hamilton engages the help of his aunt, a gifted photographer, and George Pearson, a librarian with a shared interest in the criminal mind.

Paranormal investigator Wyatt Thomas treks into the dangerous Honey Island Swamp in search of a forbidden convent where all the sisters are vampires When French Quarter detective Wyatt Thomas is awakened from a dark dream by his cat Kisses, he witnesses an eerie funeral procession from the balcony of his Chartres Street apartment. Riding in the limousine ahead of a hearse is his former lover, Desire Vallee - the first time he’s seen her since she became a nun and entered a convent. Desire’s skin is ashen, her once dark hair now ghostly white. He's left with a single clue. Is Desire in ...

Another story of murder and intrigue from the Victorian Detective’s Casebook series set in 19th century Victorian England.Chief Superintendent Frederick Morgan, the Head of the Detective Branch at Scotland Yard is invited to a high society wedding at Westminster Cathedral by a former army colleague. The occasion is a happy one, until the bride’s father is murdered in front of the guests.Chief Inspector Richard Rayner and his reliable colleague, Sergeant Henry Bustle are sent for and what follows is a mystery that stretches from the gold fields of California to China.

Some years ago, Cyrus Barker matched wits with Sebastian Nightwine, an aristocrat and sociopath, and in exposing his evil, sent Nightwine fleeing to hide from justice somewhere in the far corners of the earth. The last thing Barker ever expected was to encounter Nightwine again - but the British government, believing they need Nightwine's help, has granted him immunity for his past crimes, and brought him back to London.

It’s 1927. Letty Hart’s father is long gone, but his old winery provides a meager wage and a legal livelihood for selling sacramental wine. But when that contract goes bust, Letty stumbles upon a desperate option: her father’s hidden cellar—and enough liquor to tempt Letty to bootleg the secret stash. In an underworld dominated by merciless men, Letty is building an empire.

In 1890, the first Japanese diplomatic delegation arrives in London to open an embassy. Cyrus Barker, private enquiry agent and occasional agent for the Foreign Service Office, is enlisted to display his personal Japanese garden to the visiting dignitaries. Later that night, Ambassador Toda is shot and killed in his office and Cyrus Barker is discovered across the street, watching the very same office, in possession of a revolver with one spent cartridge.

In December 1941 an enemy attack launched the United States of America into World War II when the Imperial Army of Japan surprised the Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Americans had been watching the Europeans battle for two years already; hopes were high that the US could remain out. But on December 7 all that changed. Later that week Germany and Italy declared war against the US. For Dorie Lennox, a private detective in Kansas City, like all Americans, the sudden and tragic entry into the war was traumatic. This short story takes place two weeks after Pearl Harbor, as the country ...

When Thomas Pitt is summoned to Queen Victoria's private chambers, he hardly knows what to expect. When she tells him that the body of one of her closest confidants - Sir John Halberd - has been found in the Serpentine, he knows he is facing his most daunting and dangerous investigation yet. Sir John was a man who kept many secrets, moving within a circle of the most powerful and prominent members of London society. And the more Pitt learns about Sir John's past, the more he puts himself and his loved ones at risk.

Sheila Webb expected to find a respectable blind lady waiting for her at 19 Wilbraham Crescent - not the body of a middle-aged man sprawled across the living room floor. But when old Miss Pebmarsh denies sending for her in the first place, or of owning all the clocks that surround the body, it's clear that they are going to need a very good detective. "This crime is so complicated that it must be quite simple," declares Hercule Poirot. But there's a murderer on the loose, and time is ticking away.

When her wealthy Scottish employer dies of an overdose of heart medication, Nurse Latterly is charged with murder and locked up in Newgate Prison. To save his friend from the gallows, Inspector Monk works feverishly to identify a cold-blooded killer in the victim's greatly admired - and coolly silent - family.

In June of 1893, the future Nicholas II travels to London for a royal wedding, bringing with him his private security force and his ballerina mistress, Mathilde Kchessinska. Rumored to be the target of a professional assassin known only as La Sylphide, and the subject of conspiracies against his life by his own family who covet his future throne, Nicholas is protected by not only private security, but the professional forces of both England and Russia.

In 1860, a woman denied her inheritance and desperate for an income meets a man who lies to her, then offers her employment. Should she trust anything he says? Because Hannah True, 38, has no husband, her father’s will leaves the hotel she has been managing to her brothers-in-law. They decide to sell, leaving Hannah without a home or income. While traveling by steamboat to visit her aunt in New York City, she meets a man who takes an unexplained interest in her and then offers her a job in his detective agency. The work sounds too dangerous and nomadic for a woman who hopes to provide a ...

Empire of the Dead A Sherlock Holmes: Zombie Slayer Mystery Book Nine in the Bestselling Series New York City, 1900. The Gilded Age is cracking at the edges. Beneath the marble facades and gaslit boulevards, something unspeakable stirs. Holmes and Watson arrive in Manhattan expecting a quiet beginning to their American lecture tour. Instead, they’re swept into a chilling mystery when the daughter of a powerful railroad tycoon vanishes from her Fifth Avenue mansion—without a trace. The case deepens when a mutilated corpse is discovered in Central Park… a policeman, half-devoured, with ...

Private Enquiry agent Cyrus Barker has just about seen it all—he's been attacked by assassins, his office has been bombed, and evil-doers have even nearly killed his dog. But never before has a potential client dropped dead in his office. When Roland Fitzhugh, Member of Parliament arrives to consult Barker and his partner Thomas Llewelyn, he falls to the floor, dead, upon entering.

Another day, another dead woman in Ellison Russell's study. Only this one claimed to be Mrs. Anarchy Jones. As Ellison juggles mothers, daughter, unhappy wives, and near-miss murder attempts, one thing is clear - someone will go to any lengths to hide the truth. Can Ellison and Anarchy catch a killer before the body count rises? Or will Ellison be the next corpse in the study?

When listeners last heard Maisie Dobbs, it was 1938, and the world was on the brink of war. Maisie herself was on a dangerous mission inside Nazi Germany, where she encountered an old enemy and the Führer himself. In In This Grave Hour, a year has passed, and Maisie is back home in England - yet neither she nor her nation is safe. Britain has just declared war on Germany and is mobilizing for the devastating battle ahead.