Victorian Suspense

Grace and Seamus, united by their past experiences, are adrift on a raft of shame in the sea of 1830s London society. After a personal tragedy, Grace's desperation to leave London forces Seamus to accept a dubious commission on the private explorer, Clover. With the expedition financed by Colonel Hamilton and his private backers, Seamus is tasked with mapping a round-the-world voyage. But Colonel Hamilton has an additional package that requires delivering - Father Babcock, a priest wanted for murder.

Pride and Prejudice is a romantic novel by Jane Austen, first published in 1813. The story charts the emotional development of the protagonist, Elizabeth Bennet, who learns the error of making hasty judgments and comes to appreciate the difference between the superficial and the essential. The comedy of the writing lies in the depiction of manners, education, marriage, and money during the British Regency period.

Orphaned as a child, Hortense has had to fight her way to becoming the ton’s favorite private investigator. But for a woman who lives on the edge, the past is never dead. When her former spymaster asks her to find his wastrel brother Jamie, the Marquess of Clare, she thinks it’s just one more job uncovering the ton’s dirty secrets. She has no idea that she’s about to find her future…

On a dark, brooding evening on the Isle of Wight, Agnes Raybould and her companion find themselves an empty first-class compartment on the train. But before long a middle-aged man, clearly in high spirits after dining at his club, joins them, and begins a conversation. His name is Edwin Blanchard – and within moments of the train leaving the station, Agnes and her accomplice strangle him.

When Victorian shipping tycoon Jem Brigg is killed in a robbery, his family and the business world are shocked to discover the actual owner of the company is a woman, and a young one at that. Eleanora Pembroke’s first action as owner is to hire the handsome and capable Eliot Sparks as the face of the company. Her status as the premier heiress of London motivates a host of suitors interested only in her shipping company. To end the constant barrage of suitors, Eleanora proposes a fake engagement with her debonair new manager, but Eliot has other ideas.

Someone, somewhere, had been strangled. Psychic Jenny Watkins' second vision comes through the eyes of the victim. While she doesn't know when or where the strangulation took place, she does get a good look at the killer. With little else to go on besides an image in her mind, Jenny races to put a name to the face before he strikes again.

The handsome Earl of Somersby may just be the most eligible bachelor in London, but has no interest in a wife. As a member of the Brotherhood, Bennett Haile is far more vested in his duties protecting the Queen from would-be assassins. For now he has the perfect tool with which to lure out the villains—a young woman with an uncanny likeness to the queen. Evelyn Marrington is about to live out every country girl's dream—becoming royalty. As danger threatens from every side, Bennett realizes that his protégée isn't just placing her life in his hands . . . she's stealing his heart.

1887, the Cornwall coast. For years, rumors have flown through the village of Suttonsbury about Ashthorne Hall—that its occupants hoard pirate treasure, that a ghost walks its halls—but botanist Hyacinth Bell only cares about the estate’s extensive one-of-a-kind orchid collection. As an independent woman, she is eager to focus on her career, even if it means waiting to pursue a romantic relationship. After all, love—like an orchid—must be nurtured and tended before it can bloom. What she doesn’t expect is to be swept away by Lucas Harding, the manor’s caretaker, upon their first meeting.

December 1864. As a cold winter wind scours the Worcestershire countryside, an excursion train comes through a tunnel in the Malvern Hills, only to be confronted by a blockage on the line ahead. The driver manages to slow the train down so that the impact is minimised, but the passengers are alarmed. The first person to alight is Cyril Hubbleday, the man in charge of the excursion. He walks to the front of the locomotive—and, as he is talking to the driver, fireman and guard, he is shot dead by a sniper.

Over a decade has passed. Valeria and Emil, aunt, and nephew, are living new lives in Brasov. But when a book is published bearing her late husband's name, Valeria's darkest secret is exposed, and her happy life is left in ruins. Valeria sets out on a mission to find out who revealed her story to the world, but she meets a distraction in Paris, one she was not prepared for, someone who changes everything. Will Valeria survive her own blood thirst, or will she allow a new opportunity for happiness to slip through her fingers?

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.

Haunted by a tragic mistake in her past that endangered her family and nearly cost the life of the only man she could ever love, Emily now lives a life of exile that just so happens to include sword play and stealth on the dark streets of London in an attempt to stop innocent people from coming to harm at the hands of seedy criminals. Caring not for her own safety, Emily embarks on a life of justice at all costs, if only to rid her mind of the ghostly image of her lost love.

When Muriel Carew attends a lavish society party, the last person she expects to bump into is her ex-fiancee Henry Jekyll, a man she's not seen for many years. When Jekyll turns out to be investigating a series of missing persons in London, Muriel is intrigued. But Jekyll is not working alone, and if Muriel wants to aid in the investigation, she must work with both Henry and his partner, the monstrous and uncouth Mr Hyde.

Manchester, England, 1857. When the largest art exhibition ever to be held in Manchester opens, Rosanna Hawkins—one of Manchester’s finest artists to reproduce “parlor versions” of classic masterpieces with near-perfect precision—attends, excited by the chance to sketch such famous works. When she meets the handsome Detective Martin Harrison, who is head of security for the exhibition, she is immediately intrigued. But the couple’s blossoming summer romance takes a strange turn when Rosanna recognizes her own works on display in the exhibition hall.

Matilda Hayward is determined to have a career. After all, it is 1888! While reporting for the Women’s Journal newspaper, Matilda is sent to cover the visiting Freak Show and interview Mrs Anna Tufton, a giantess. During the interview, the giantess slips a note to Matilda begging for her help to escape the show she is forced to do by her husband. But when the giantess’s husband is found murdered, the giantess is a likely suspect.

Die junge Angiola hat einen Traum: als Sängerin auf den Opernbühnen der Welt zu stehen und das Publikum mit ihrer Stimme zu verzaubern. Doch als Frau ist es ihr im Italien des 18. Jahrhunderts verboten, öffentlich zu singen. Angiola bleibt keine Wahl - sie muss sich als Kastrat ausgeben, um auftreten zu können. Ihre Verkleidung als Mann täuscht jeden, bis auf einen: Giacomo Casanova, den wohl berühmtesten aller Verführer.

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.

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.

Detective Inspector Arthur Gredge of Scotland Yard is a changed man, and not for the better, it seems. The prime suspect in a terrible crime he did not commit, Gredge launches an impassioned defense. The problem is that he does not know if he is guilty or innocent. Midnight Gunn must uncover the cause of Gredge’s unsettling behavior before the inspector loses his mind, his job, or very possibly his life. It is a task that must be conducted with the utmost caution, as Midnight’s own conduct comes under close scrutiny from all directions, putting him and those he loves at risk.

The Sussex Beekeeper at the Dawn of Time is an unconventional and breath-taking tour de force that flirts with the crossover and steampunk genres. The book knits together a transcribed oral memoir, newspaper clippings, and myriad letters and journal pages from across two millennia, much of it held together by the pithy comments of a certain elderly beekeeper residing in Sussex, England. While comparatively few, these notes are nonetheless the essential marble skeleton on which the whole denouement and structure of the book hangs.