Victorian Suspense

Wimbledon, England, 1889. When Theodore Crozier is found dead the neighbourhood hopes the cause may be suicide, if only to spare further pain for both his dutiful wife, Laura, and beloved brother, Titus. However, there is more to the matter - a whisper of murder.... Inspector John Joseph Lintott of Scotland Yard is sent in to investigate, and the further he delves into the mystery the more tangled it becomes. Is Laura the pious, meek wife she appears to be? Could the rumours be true about her unnatural relationship with Titus? Was Theodore Crozier murdered by someone in his household?

Near destitute after the sudden death of her wastrel husband, Lady Pipworth must find a way to support herself and her young nieces until her brother returns home to assume his role as head of the family. Thanks to her three brothers who raised her, Adalia's one outstanding skill in life is gambling, and with a dower house now at her disposal, plans to fill the coffers - scandal begetting or not - begin to take shape.

The widowed Duchess of Sailer has desires that are hard to fill in polite society. To that effect, she visits a brothel to have her bottom reddened. If word got out, her reputation would be ruined. So, when a member of society is murdered, and her name turns up in the books he is using to blackmail people, the metropolitan police show up on her doorstep. Olivia does the only thing she can to keep her name from being dragged through the mud: she agrees to take the investigator into her life so she can help him find a killer. Inspector Rupert McKinley expects to get in and out, and figure out who killed Lord Ethan. He doesn't care about Olivia's desires...until he starts to spend time with her, and realizes she's more interesting than he ever expected her to be. When their business relationship turns into a personal one, Rupert is determined to find the murderer before someone else - like Olivia - is killed.

Military confidant Cole McKnight will do anything to reclaim his home, even run bounties for an unprincipled bondsman. When Isa Foster becomes his latest assignment, Cole jeopardizes more than his property to bring her in. Isa Foster has a bounty on her head and a dead friend at her feet. Accused of the murder, she must rely on her espionage training and wits to clear her name. Cole McKnight is one distraction she can't afford.

Mail order bride Kat Bailey has more to fear than malicious rumors about a crazed murderer. But a woman with no money or family has few options. She quickly learns that her intended groom is not as honorable as Hampton society believes him to be. Beaten by her betrothed, she seeks refuge in the home of the most feared man in town. Accused murderer, Grayson Gregory is more interested in guarding a family secret than clearing his name.

Cassandra Northrup had believed Nathaniel dead - until now. Once she had loved him, given herself to him in the hidden depths of the snow-covered Pyrenees. But then she had betrayed him. Relief at the sight of Nathaniel turns to darkest shame as Cassie sees the hate in his eyes.

London, 1907: Die junge Adlige Victoria lebt allein mit dem Butler ihres verstorbenen Vaters. Sie halten sich über Wasser, indem Victoria als Fotografin und Hopkins bei einer Zeitung arbeitet. Als auf einem Ball hässliche Andeutungen über ein dunkles Familiengeheimnis laut werden, kommt es zum Eklat - und Victoria gerät gar unter Mordverdacht.

November 1853. Inspector Field has summoned his friends Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins to examine a body found in an attic studio, its throat cut. Around the body lie the lacerated fragments of canvas of a painting titled A Winter of Despair. Wilkie realises he recognises the victim, for he had been due to dine with him that very evening. The dead man is Edwin Milton-Hayes, one of Wilkie's brother Charley's artist friends. With his own brother under suspicion of murder, what secrets lie among the close-knit group of Pre-Raphaelite painters who is the killer in their midst?

Left unchaperoned and stranded, Lady Lillian Lancaster has no choice but to find her way home and, quickly, before her reputation is ruined. Betrayed by those closest, she’s forced to trust the daring rogue who rushes to her rescue. When the Dark Duke reveals his identity and proposes a false engagement in exchange for further protection, Lillian is concerned and intrigued yet enamored by the shadows which haunt his eyes and fuel the horrid whispers behind his back.

London, 1890. Mina Murray once lived an adventurous life, but after a tragedy in the forests of Transylvania, she left it all behind. Now she has settled into a quiet routine as a schoolteacher in London, engaged to the respectable solicitor Jonathan Harker, attempting to fit into the stuffy upper class London society to which he belongs. But when vampires abduct Jonathan, her dark past comes careening into her present.

Although Ophelia Garrett loved Cade Scott first, it was her sister he married and took home to his plantation. When Ophelia receives word of her sister's murder and Cade's arrest, she travels there on a mission to learn the truth. She soon finds the halls of Almenara are haunted by secrets, peril, and quite possibly her sister's ghost. Despite the cold, angry man Cade has become, Ophelia's heart refuses to believe he is a murderer. Vowing to do everything she can to prove his innocence, Ophelia must open wounds she'd hoped were long healed.

Alexandra Wallace es feliz trabajando como investigadora privada. A pesar de ser considerada una belleza, no duda en disfrazarse como la más fea de las pordioseras, para poder realizar sus investigaciones que es lo más importante para ella. Hasta que conoce a Gabriel Damsworth, marqués y espía y saltan chispas entre los dos, pero Alexandra se aparta de su camino sin dudarlo decidida a seguir con su profesión.

Sir Maurice Newbury is bereft as his trusty assistant Veronica Hobbes lies dying with a wounded heart. Newbury and Veronica's sister, Amelia, must take a sleeper train across Europe to St. Petersberg to claim a clockwork heart that Newbury has commissioned from Faberge to save Veronica from a life trapped in limbo. No sooner do they take off then sinister goings-on start to plague the train, and it is discovered that an old villain, thought dead, is also on board and seeking revenge.

London, 1833. Doctress Hester Reeves has been offered a life-changing commission. But it comes at a price. She must leave behind her husband and their canal-side home in Kings Cross and move to Tall Trees—a dark and foreboding house in Fitzrovia. If Hester can cure the ailing health of its owner, Gervaise Cherville, she will receive payment that will bring her everything she could dream of. But on arriving at Tall Trees, Hester quickly discovers that an even bigger task awaits her.

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.

This gripping historical crime fiction novel, based on fact, is set in Bradford, England, 1888. It explores the horrific murder of Johnny Gill; a murder and mutilation so gruesome, it stuns a nation. Even hardened detectives are affected by its savagery, swiftly comparing it to the work of Jack the Ripper.

"The good old days" aren't all they're cracked up to be...at least in Jeanne M. Dams's turn-of-the-century novels. Her woman on the spot, Hilda Johansson, a maid in the Studebaker household in South Bend, sees what's going on among the rich, suffers what's going on among the less fortunate...and has no trouble telling it like it is.

When 18-year-old Eliza Cross agrees to visit her school friend, Lady Celia, at her home for the summer, it's immediately clear how out of place she is at Caerdon Abbey. Eliza, orphan and charity student, can't help feeling different from the aristocracy who are living their lives in luxury. But when Celia's brother, Alan, the handsome Duke of Caerdon, comes home from France, Eliza finds herself irresistibly attracted to him - especially after he disciplines her on the very first morning after they meet.

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.

Ghost stories date back centuries, but those written in the Victorian era have a unique atmosphere and dark beauty. Michael Sims, whose previous Victorian collections Dracula’s Guest (vampires) and The Dead Witness (detectives) have been widely praised, has gathered twelve of the best stories about humanity’s oldest supernatural obsession. The Phantom Coach includes tales by a surprising and often legendary cast, including Charles Dickens, Margaret Oliphant, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as lost gems by forgotten masters such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and W. F. Harvey. Amelia B. Edwards’s chilling story gives the collection its title, while Ambrose Bierce ("The Moonlit Road"), Elizabeth Gaskell ("The Old Nurse’s Story"), and W. W. Jacobs ("The Monkey’s Paw") will turn you white as a sheet. With a skillful introduction to the genre and notes on each story by Sims, The Phantom Coach is a spectacular collection of ghostly Victorian thrills.