Victorian Suspense

Queen Victoria's top assassin, Lord Alexander Stokes, harbors his fair share of dark secrets. Chief among them his membership in an elite brothel. When a damsel-in-distress appeals for his help, he ponders the consequences, yet her similarity to his first love intrigues him. He offers to help her with a single condition: that the beauty consents to be his chattel for an entire year.

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.

The Welsh borders, 1870s. On the cusp of adulthood, Eliza Mace is battling for her independence. Stuck in a crumbling manor house on the fringe of a small town, she is thwarted by powers that conspire to protect, control and deceive her. But when her father goes missing in mysterious circumstances, Eliza’s determination to uncover the truth is unstoppable. Joining forces with the charismatic new police constable, Dafydd Pritchard, she sets out to solve the case, but that’s no easy task. Her father has run up debts in town and beyond, and there are many who bear him a grudge.

April 1831, her grace Corinne Monroe wants her widowed son, Lord Julian, to marry her best friend’s daughter, Miss Sophie Wilkie. Julian last saw Sophie when she was twelve years old, silent, skinny, and always staring at him. However, his mother is nothing if not persuasive, and Julian reluctantly accompanies her to London to meet the young lady. And he knows that whatever happens isn’t going to be good. Lord Devlin Monroe, Julian’s nephew, is very fond of his intriguing reputation in society: he delights, he frightens, he brings on delicious shudders. He’s enjoying a pleasant bachelor life....

Clara grew up believing that her mother's family had disowned them. But the grandmother Clara never knew is now entreating her to visit Thurnley Hall, the family seat in Yorkshire. The old lady is on her deathbed and anxious to disclose vital family secrets before it's too late - for Clara's unborn child may be cursed with a horrible fate.

On the first night of Lady Cecile McCaulay's transatlantic crossing, a passenger is found dead. Cecile believes the murderer will strike again. Can she protect those she loves? Perhaps she can, but who will protect her?

Steamy regency romance. Redeeming a rake can be so satisfying. Four complete novels. Each filled with intrigue, danger, and true love.

When wealthy Lionel Furthingale’s daughter disappeared 25 years ago, she was assumed dead, a traceless disembodied victim of the Resurrection Men. Furthingale has now learned from a note scribbled on a playbill that his daughter not only lived an unknown number of years, but she gave birth before dying. Detective Morgan Bateman and his bluestocking assistant Victoria Eubank must race to find missing granddaughter Priscilla before the Drury Lane murderer corrects the mistake.

Twenty years after the Phantom of the Opera has vacated the Paris Opera House, his past catches up with him. The evil Sultana of Mazenderan - whom the Phantom last saw as a 10-year-old girl - wants the Phantom to commit foul deeds for her (again) and will not take no for an answer. After the Sultana kidnaps the Phantom’s beloved to ensure his performance and the Phantom is injured, he is forced to seek out help.

Miss Calamity Calloway is the epitome of efficiency as long as she’s typing travel reports, but when she’s out in the world, the troubles start. Tripping over laces, bumping into people on the street, and tumbling into awkward situations is the order of her days, and unfortunately, her handsome neighbor is usually a witness. All she longs for is a bit of trouble-free adventure.

When a girl is murdered at a factory in London, Sergeant Thaddeus Knight of the Metropolitan Police comes in to investigate. But it's not just the factory owners that Thaddeus wants information on. The devilishly intriguing Poppy O'Reilly is a puzzle he'd like nothing more than to solve.

La caparbia Angelica Cynster è certa che riconoscerà a prima vista l'uomo destinato a diventare suo marito. Quando i suoi occhi incontrano quelli di un misterioso nobiluomo, capisce senza ombra di dubbio che lui è quello giusto. Ma presto il suo cuore batterà forte per il motivo sbagliato: la sua anima gemella in realtà ha deciso di rapirla. L'uomo misterioso in verità è l'ottavo conte di Glencrae e non ha scelta, ha dovuto rapire Angelica, l'unica delle sorelle Cynster con cui non ha mai voluto invischiarsi.

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".

Rebellious Julian Fortescue never expected to inherit a dukedom nor to find himself guardian to three young half sisters. Now in the market for a governess, he lays eyes on Jane Grey and knows immediately that she is qualified to become his mistress. Yet the alluring woman appears impervious to him.

Princess Luisa has devoted her life to duty, quietly preparing to succeed her father as ruler. Nothing, however, primed her to live on the run, disguised as a personal secretary to a notorious English scoundrel. The earl is just the man to help her reclaim her throne, but Luisa is drawn to her powerful employer in ways she could never imagine.

The year is 1873, and Sybil Ingram has come to a crossroads. Once she was the toast of the London stage, but now that she's 28 years old - very well, nearly 30 - her draw isn't what it used to be, and her theater troupe is foundering. When her trusted mentor asks her to take the blame for his financial misdeeds, Sybil sees no choice but to retire from the life she loves and move to America to marry New York City hotel magnate Alcott Lammle.

When Indian Princess Alexandrina is left penniless by the sudden death of her father, the Maharaja of Brindor, Queen Victoria grants her a grace-and-favor home in Hampton Court Palace. Though rumored to be haunted, Alexandrina and her lady's maid, Pooki, have no choice but to take the Queen up on her offer. Aside from the ghost sightings, Hampton Court doesn't seem so bad. The princess is soon befriended by three eccentric widows who invite her to a picnic with all the palace's inhabitants, for which Pooki bakes a pigeon pie. But General-Major Bagshot dies after eating said pie....

With the scandalous nature of her birth to live down, Isabella Fairmont dreams of a proper marriage—even if a passionless one. She saves her deepest desires for the novel she dares to pen, wherein a handsome lord with dark powers seduces her. But then her courtship with an appropriate suitor is threatened by the sudden attentions of the reclusive Earl of Black… whose pale blue eyes and brooding sensuality are exactly as she described in her book.

Revolutionary terrorists, a dead British agent, a man-eating tiger, and the Commander of the British Army cavorting with a Russian spy. Now it's a national emergency. Monarchies are collapsing daily and the world is on the brink of revolution, but most importantly--the game is afoot!