Victorian English Mystery

Amidst the cool of autumn a young woman comes to Baker Street telling of the sudden death of her father out in the great Gray Forest in the west of the country, and of the suspicious circumstances which had marked his last days…events she claims are now mirrored by similar happenings in her own life. Knowing the forest harbours legends concerning a coven of witches which has remained hidden there since the most primeval of times, the young client raises the possibility of their involvement in her father’s strange passing. And so to the largest and most mysterious forest in the realm ...

Lord Farrington is returning from what had been a wonderful evening at White’s, when he is struck suddenly and knocked unconscious. Waking up to find himself in a locked room, he has no knowledge as to why he is there or who attacked him. With no means of escape, he struggles between fear and anger, only to be greeted by a veiled lady who promises to explain everything. Lady Josephine Rutherford has spent five years searching for the truth about her husband’s death. Believing that Lord Farrington is responsible, she uses her wealth and influence to have him captured and brought to her ...

Three murders in a single moonless night, each ending in the death of a seemingly unconnected victim, separated by distance and circumstance, united only in the brutally efficient method by which each met their death, and by the fact each had been a passenger on the same Glasgow-to-London train. What conclusions can Sherlock Holmes draw from this confusing set of facts, and will he be able to identify who is behind the crimes, and why he has undertaken so violent a spree of death? Find out in The Case of the Hammer Murders, the forty-seventh mystery in The Continuing Chronicles of Sherlock ...

London, 1885. Amelie Hampton is a hopeless romantic, which makes her the perfect columnist to answer lonely heart letters in The Marriage Gazette. When Amelie plays matchmaker with two anonymous lonely hearts, she also decides to secretly observe the couple’s blind date. To her surprise, the man who appears for the rendezvous is Harold Radcliffe - a grieving widower and a member of Amelie’s book club.

Previously published as Deadly Secrets: Hidden Hand by Madalena Melchior. SECRET HAND After a meeting with Sherlock Holmes, Sir Albert Allerton returns home and (apparently) decides to commit suicide along with his wife. Sherlock Holmes must discover the truth about these and other deaths linked to an old Allerton family secret. Were they all suicides, or the result of something unfathomably grimmer?

A small village has been struck by a curse! Villagers are dropping dead for no apparent reason. Holmes and Watson are seeking to discover if there's truth behind the legendary curse, or if there's another force at work...far worse!

Annabelle and Bayard Van Duyvil live a charmed life in New York: He's the scion of an old Knickerbocker family, she grew up in a Tudor house in England, they had a fairy-tale romance in London, and he's recreated her family home on the banks of the Hudson. Yes, there are rumors that she's having an affair with the architect, but rumors are rumors. But then Bayard is found dead with a knife in his chest on the night of their Twelfth Night Ball; Annabelle goes missing, presumed drowned; and the papers go mad.

In 1851, private detective Laetitia Rodd is enjoying a well-earned holiday when she gets an urgent request for her services. Mrs. Rodd’s neighbor Jacob Welland is a reclusive rich gentleman dying of consumption, and he wants Mrs. Rodd to find his brother, who has been missing for 15 years. Joshua Welland was a scholar at Oxford, brilliant, eccentric, and desperately poor when he disappeared from the university. Friends claim to have seen him since, in gypsy camps and wandering around the countryside.

London's social season is in full swing, and Victorian aristocracy can't stop whispering about a certain gentleman who claims to be the direct descendant of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. But he's not the only topic of wagging tongues. Drawing rooms, boudoirs, and ballrooms are abuzz with the latest news of an audacious cat burglar who has been systematically stealing valuable items that once belonged to the ill-fated queen. Light gossip turns serious when the owner of one of the pilfered treasures is found murdered, and the mysterious thief develops a twisted obsession with Lady Emily Ashton.

Amelia and Lord Blackwell must defy all odds for their love to survive, but can they overcome their biggest challenge yet? London 1860 Amelia and Dimitri must fight for their love in the face of those who seek to hunt Dimitri and his kind. When Amelia faces a new challenge, she must keep it a secret before it puts everyone she loves in danger. Separating herself from the vampire she loves is a torment Amelia can hardly bear, but she knows she must endure it for his safety. Will Amelia and Dimitri find a way to fight those who are seeking to end their lives? Or will Amelia’s secret tear ...

A plain envelope addressed to Mr. Sherlock Holmes has been delivered to 221B Baker Street. The stock is cheap and could have been purchased at any general shop. The hand, however, is rare for its graceful sweep and regularity. “A true technician,” Holmes noted. “Mr. Holmes,” it begins. “You don’t know me and I am a man of no importance to anyone except my employer, and he couldn’t function without my services. My only significance to you, Sir, lies in the fact that I mean to kill. Only a few additional clews for the great man are in order. I live in Whitechapel and have done ...

Malcolm Findley was a strange little man with a large, pale, half-bald dome of a bulbous head, a trailing mane of silver-white hair, and a pair of Belgian-made golden pince-nez eyeglasses. He was also brilliant and this aspect of his personality so overshadowed the former that he was considered a colossus. Born the eldest son of a poor fisherman on the Isle of Lewis in the windswept northwest of Scotland, he grew up in a stone cottage with a thatched roof that didn’t blow away in the frequent gales only because it was held down by a net of hemp ropes weighted at the ends by stones. As a ...

Susanna is keeping a secret. Can she risk telling the truth? Benedict, the Earl of Knightsbridge is something of a recluse. His mother is insistent that he find a wife, but marriage is the last thing on his mind. Threatening notes arrive at his home every few days, which is why he continues to avoid society. However, when his mother insists that they throw a house party to find him a bride, Benedict has no other choice but to do so. He soon discovers that all is not as terrible as he feared, especially when he finds himself quite taken with one particular young lady. Miss Susanna Millerton ...

A seamstress with a dark past – who better to solve a murder? Wiltshire, Summer 1845. Alice Beaumont has achieved what other seamstresses can only dream of: dressing the finest ladies of English society. She always keeps her distance, as meddling in others' lives brings nothing but trouble. Now, the Darnwells have invited her to their country estate to dress the future wife of their son. Upon meeting Violet, Alice is tempted to ignore her principles: the bride-to-be appears both too wealthy and too young to be the wife of the arrogant Raymond. Then a murder occurs... Fatal Wedding Night ...

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...

Minnie is desperate. Her fiancé Samuel has been missing for over a week, and it's not like him to just disappear. Heightening her worry is the fact that, citing a small financial issue, he just will not settle on a wedding date. Is it really due to money, or is he getting cold feet? She tries a little investigative work with the help of her friends, but is horrified when a visit to talk with Samuel's stockbroker, ends up with them discovering the man's dead body. What on earth has Samuel got himself involved with? Samuel adores Minnie. But how can he marry her when most of his inheritance ...

Fourth in the series of Charlotte and Thomas Pitt mysteries, Anne Perry's Resurrection Row explores the dark undercurrents that run through the lives of the idle rich in Victorian England. After a wonderful night at the theatre, Thomas and Charlotte find themselves confronted with a corpse in the driver's seat of a cab. Even more shocking, it is the body of a peer who had been decently buried the week before.

Victorian London was notorious for its pickpockets. But in the country houses of the elite, gentleman burglars, art thieves and con men preyed on the rich and titled. Wealthy victims—with their pride and reputation at stake—would never go to the police. What they needed was a society insider, one of their own, a person of discretion and finely tuned powers of observation.

Bubble, bubble, toil, and murder... When a woman is found dead near her village in Norfolk, the verdict is suicide. Not everyone agrees. Detective James Simpson is ordered to investigate and he brings Agatha Aston, Betty Simpson and Talleyrand the hound, with him. They stumble across a tale of murder that stretches back two centuries. Part occult story, part murder mystery - this creepy tale is steeped in witchcraft and strange rural festivals where everything is not as it seems. The second Agatha Aston murder mystery is full of laughs, twists and things that go bump in the night. Golden ...

Under the cover of "Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective", Charlotte Holmes puts her extraordinary powers of deduction to good use. Aided by the capable Mrs. Watson, Charlotte draws those in need to her and makes it her business to know what other people don't. When the estranged wife of her dear friend Lord Ingram is discovered dead on his estate, all signs point to him as the murderer. With Scotland Yard closing in, Charlotte goes under disguise to find out the truth.