Victorian Suspense

A young banker, by the name of Mr Charles Petrie, returned home after riding his horse to dine with his wife, Grace, and her companion, Mrs Quinn. During and after dinner he had nothing to excite him save the receipt of a letter which somewhat annoyed him, and that his wife consumed rather more wine than he considered to be good for her health. Immediately after retiring to his room, he was seized with symptoms of irritant poisoning, and despite every effort made on his behalf, he succumbed to its effects.

When her soulmate, Jonathan August-Trelawney jilts her at the altar, Lily Pond is determined to live life on her own terms. Her friends aren’t afraid of giving their opinions, encouraging her to find someone else to marry, and swiftly. Lily has other ideas.

This short story in the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series features one of the most beloved characters in the series, as well as giving the listener a tour of the boardinghouse itself. Chronologically, this story come soon after the events in Scholarly Pursuits, so if you don't like spoilers, you might want to wait to listen to it until you have finished that book.

It’s January 1881, and while the grownups in Annie and Nate Dawson’s San Francisco O’Farrell Street boardinghouse are busy with their own affairs, two boys and a dog find their own adventure. Ian Hennessey, a poor boy from South of Market, who is trying to shoulder a man’s responsibilities, gets in trouble, and his best friend, Jamie Hewitt, does what he can to help. But it is Jamie’s young Boston Terrier, Dandy, who saves the day.

When lady’s maid Marian Osley and footman Valentine Hobbs assume their positions at the cliff-top estate of Valor Rise, they already share a history. Raised together as paupers in a London workhouse, they indulged in S&M games of imaginary crimes and sublime punishment. Now they’ve been unexpectedly reunited - in subservience to the brooding Wythe Bornholdt and his frail wife, Diana. A master and mistress with their own dark secrets.

When not performing two sold-out shows every night, Music Hall Steampunk illusionists and consultants to Scotland Yard, slick-talking Michael Magister and the feisty Phoebe Le Breton, must solve the crime of the century, while saving the nation from a conclave of fiendish psychopaths led by the crazed renegade Jesuit known only as "The Black Bishop".

Something odd is happening at the O’Farrell Street boardinghouse, and Annie is worried that her new baby might be in danger. But never fear! Dandy, the Boston terrier, will discover the culprit, and all will be well. Dandy’s Discovery is a short story in the Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, and it comes right after Beatrice Bests the Burglars.

Raven looks out over the small town of Cogsworth and imagines a life beyond her grandmother's mansion. But Raven holds a dark secret that prevents her from leaving. Now an orphan, Raven must do her best to hide her gifts of sight if she's to survive the cruel Victorian society. However, when a ghost of a child comes to her for help, Raven finds herself in the gas-lit streets of London, on the trail of a female serial killer. As she tries to solve the string of murders, she realizes that the murders are almost identical to those from a case left unsolved years before she was born.

In this short story it is the fall of 1879 and San Francisco swelters under a heat wave while Barbara Hewitt, a reserved school-teacher, uncovers a mystery with the help of her son's Boston Terrier, Dandy. This story is set in the gas-lit world created by Locke in her Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, which includes Maids of Misfortune, Uneasy Spirits, Bloody Lessons, and the short story "The Misses Moffet Mend a Marriage".

‘The Signalman’ (1866) is a short story by the English writer Charles Dickens (1812-1870). In the story, a practical-minded narrator meets a railway worker who has been seeing supernatural visions. The narrator doubts the man at first, but at the story’s conclusion a strange event makes him a believer.

Samuel Black must make a decision: to be a spy like his father or follow his heart. Either is likely to give his mother chest pains.

Benedict Svoboda knows what it means to experience loss. After the death of his mother, the rejection of his father, and the loss of his mentor, Ben is determined all the more to protect those in his care—and none more so than his beloved wife, Marguerite. However, Marguerite is no stranger to espionage. Having worked with Lady Penelope Ollerton-Wellesley and the Order of the Crystal Daggers for many years, Marguerite is able—and perhaps too eager—to work with Ben on his various missions, despite his objections.

An old man lives in a Victorian house alone. Or so he thinks. When he visits his basement, he is literally haunted by his past.

It's the very end of December, 1880, and the servant Kathleen Hennessey expects to spend a quiet week taking care of the O'Farrell Street boarding house while her employers, Annie and Nate Dawson, are off spending the Christmas holidays with Nate's family. However, when she agrees to help out one of her friends, Kathleen discovers that a simple case of a servant being dismissed without notice has turned into a complicated puzzle that she is determined to solve.

This city is going to ruin you. Just like it ruined your mother. Rose Fraser is nervous yet excited at the idea of a London season. Her excitement fades away when she starts receiving threats in the form of intricately folded, anonymous notes. Nerves turn to fear as the threats escalate. Feeling trapped, unable to go to the police, she turns to the only person she thinks can help her, her most serious suitor, private investigator James Grey. But will he uncover the truth before things take a turn for the worst?

María Feodorovna es una actriz rusa de éxito que vive en Londres y quetiene una aventura con Black, el atractivo propietario del restaurante demoda de la ciudad. Un día, él cree que María lo ha engañado y, loco decelos, corta la relación.Poco después, recibe una carta de ella en la que le dice que nunca le hasido infiel, aunque reconoce que le había ocultado algo: que trabaja comoespía para el gobierno británico. La carta es una declaración de amor yuna despedida, porque la han encomendado una misión muy peligrosa enMadrid de la que no sabe si volverá.Cuando Black consigue encontrarse de nuevo con ella, la han disparado yestá muy grave.

A dangerous man from her past. A handsome duke in her present. Secrets that threaten their future. After tragedy hits and danger moves in, Pauline Danahue flees London, searching for sanctuary and a way to start over. A job at a small university becomes the perfect refuge. Her new life's mission - keeping recalcitrant professor, Edward Bailey, on task after a shattered heart renders him broken and destroyed. But Fate isn't done with Pauline. The same vicious man from her past sets his malicious sights on her, shattering her safe haven.

A young American actress arrives in London hoping to learn her identity, just as Sherlock Holmes is closing in on a master criminal. Their worlds collide, and not even Holmes could have foreseen the impact!

Twenty years ago, one foggy night, David Bowler, a tailor disappeared. Twenty years later, a ringer by the name of Easter Wells appears and finds himself instantly drawn into the tale. Intrigued by the inconsistencies surrounding the reports, Wells sets out to unravel the 20-year-old mystery. But all he has at his disposal are a bunch of Londoners and their foggy memories. As conversations flow over wine, tea, and even haircuts, Easter Wells must disentangle the right thread to put to rest a 20-year-old enigma. A murder is certain.

She has an excellent escape planned... Lady Tempest MacIntyre has been offered, by her stepfather, as an item up for auction! But she has an excellent escape planned... if she can keep from tripping over the good intentions of the Duke of Stromburg, sometimes referred to as Lord Fool.