Victorian Suspense

This fast-paced story from E. W. Hornung has something for every reader: a juicy murder mystery, a tender romance, charming local color, a critique of Victorian social mores, around-the-world adventures, and much more. The plot twists come at a breakneck pace, so don't blink or you might miss a crucial clue!

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.

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.

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".

London's most notorious scoundrel has been saddled with an abandoned baby boy, and with the unflappable, intriguing spinster summoned to nurse him. Justine Brightmore may be a viscount's niece, but she's also a spy's daughter, determined to safeguard the infant when his suspected royal parentage makes him a target. Yet how to protect herself from the rakish Griffin? Marriage might shield her reputation, but it can only imperil her heart, especially with a groom intent on delicious seduction.

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!

Disowned by the cruel father who has always despised her, she has nowhere to turn until she is taken under the wing of a glamorous relative she never knew: the former Duchess of Ellsworth, who has scandalized society by remarrying soon after her first husband's death. At the opulent seaside estate of Ellsmere, Oriel thinks she has found a safe haven - but the darkly handsome young duke, Herron, believes otherwise. Haunted by the death of his father, he suspects that Ellsmere is sheltering a murderer.

Five years after releasing the love of his life to another man, the Duke of Surrey struggles with deep remorse about his past decisions. Chained in a loveless marriage of convenience and strangled by duty, he wallows in regret and drink. Everything in his life changes, when on holiday in Paris, he meets a young boy and his former rival. Suddenly, he finds himself thrown into a whirlwind of deceit and lies as he searches for the meaning of truth and love. Just like innocence, deception carries a price.

Saddled with Chloe Gresham, his beautiful and irresponsible young ward, Sir Hugo Lattimer, a man driven by dark memories and a tormenting despair, has no intention of caring for her - until he falls in love.

Iain Sinclair, Marquis of Alynwick, is certain there is a special hell for him. An unrepentant rake, he holds nothing sacred - except for beautiful Elizabeth York. For years, Alynwick has tried to forget the woman he loved so well, and treated so badly. A woman who could hold nothing in her heart for him but hatred. All of society believes Elizabeth, the blind daughter of a duke, to be a proper young lady. But no one knows of her wanton affair with Alynwick.

Lucy Ashton had long ago given up her quest for true love. In the rarified society of Victorian England, Lucy plays the game—flirting, dancing and dabbling in the newly fashionable spiritualism. Even marrying when—and who—she’s supposed to. If the stuffy Duke of Sussex cannot spark the passion she craves, he can at least give her a family, a home of her own, and a place to belong. But when her polite marriage reveals a caring and sensual man, Lucy begins to wonder if she can indeed have it all.