Bodies surface and disappear, seduce and corrupt in these original stories by bestselling, award-winning female crime writers from the Killer Women crime-writing collective. Keep your eyes peeled, your ears cocked and your wits about you as twenty deliciously twisted tales take you to surprising places... 'A killer collection of dark and devious tales' Mark Billingham'A lot of women have terrified me over the years, but none quite like these...

London, 1856. The specimen-collecting craze is growing, and discoveries in far-off jungles are reshaping the known world in unimaginable ways. When the glamorous Lady Bessingham is found murdered in her bedroom, surrounded by her vast collection of fossils, Professor Adolphus Hatton and his morgue assistant Albert Roumande are called in to examine the crime scene - and the body.In the new and suspicious world of forensics, Hatton and Roumande are the best. Enlisted by Scotland Yard ...

London 1858. Forensic scientist Adolphus Hatton and his trusty assistant Albert Roumande have a morgue full of cholera victims to attend to. But alongside the cholera outbreak, London is also home to a growing unrest. When a leading politician of the Irish Unionist movement is murdered, Scotland Yard calls on Hatton and Roumande for help.

Two bodies are discovered on the same night in the same part of London: both shocking, both inexplicable – neither entirely human.Police Commissioner Sir Richard Mayne's prized Detective Force is being mocked by the press on one side and investigated by Parliament on the other. His notorious investigator Inspector Albert Newsome seems afflicted by a dangerous mania and Sir Richard himself is expected to stand before parliament to defend the practices of his men. So when two houses ...

Undertaker Violet Harper confronts the dire predictions of a fortuneteller in Queen Victoria’s court in this gripping tale by the author of Stolen Remains.Queen Victoria, still mourning her long-dead husband Prince Albert, has found solace in John Brown, an enigmatic palace servant who dabbles in the occult and keeps the grieving queen entertained with his tarot card readings. Undertaker Violet Harper is invited to attend one of Mr. Brown’s infamous readin...

Master sleuth Colin Pendragon and his trusted partner, Ethan Pruitt, leave their familiar cosmopolitan London for rural Sussex County, where the bucolic peace has been shattered by the murder of a monk…At the request of his father, Pendragon and Pruitt travel to the town of Dalwich, where a gruesome crime has desecrated the hallowed halls of Whitmore Abbey. The abbott has been slaughtered in his cell with multiple stab wounds and his tongue cut out. Although Father Demetris, the lo...

A Victorian-era undertaker plans a funeral for an eccentric duke's pet raven—but the bird's death is soon followed by murder: “A most unusual heroine.” (Publishers Weekly).While on a much-needed respite with her husband Sam in Nottinghamshire, undertaker Violet Harper is summoned to Welbeck Abbey by the Fifth Duke of Portland to prepare a body. His Grace is known as the “mad duke,” and Violet has more than an inkling of why when she arrives at the grand es...

From the author of The Bellingham Bloodbath, a Victorian London private detective investigates a potentially Voodoo-related murder.When wealthy Edmond Connicle suddenly disappears, his distraught wife enlists the services of master sleuth Colin Pendragon and his loyal partner, Ethan Pruitt. Already on the case, however, is Scotland Yard’s Inspector Varcoe. He suspects the Connicles’ West African scullery maid of doing in her employer, especially when a bad...

An undertaker follows a mystery from Windsor Castle to Egyptian tombs: “Violet remains an engaging guide with an unusual perspective on Victorian society.” —Publishers WeeklyAfter establishing her reputation as one of London's most highly regarded undertakers, Violet Harper decided to take her practice to the wilds of the American West. But when her mother falls ill, Violet and her husband, Samuel, are summoned back to England, where her skills are as soug...

'A hugely entertaining Victorian mystery' New York Times'I enjoyed this - properly creepy and Gothic' Ian RankinA spellbinding concoction of crime, history and horror - perfect for fans of Sherlock Holmes and Jonathan Creek_______Edinburgh, 1888. A violinist is murdered in his home.The dead virtuoso's maid swears she heard three musicians playing in the night. But with only on...

Colin Pendragon's reputation as a brilliant detective is undisputed in Victorian London. But when murder strikes inside the closed ranks of Her Majesty's Guard, he must penetrate a wall of silence and secrecy to discover the dark truth. . .After a captain in Her Majesty's Guard and his young wife are brutally murdered in their flat, master sleuth Colin Pendragon and his partner Ethan Pruitt are summoned to Buckingham Palace. Major Hampstead demands discretion at all costs to preser...

An Edwardian countess and her housekeeper look into a disastrous dinner party in "a neatly crafted whodunit that drips with diamonds, titles, and scandals" ( Kirkus Reviews).Lady Montfort is thrilled to receive an invitation to a dinner party to celebrate Winston Churchill's thirty-ninth birthday, hosted by her close friend Hermione Kingsley, patroness of England's largest charity. Some of the oldest families in the country have gathered to toast the danger...