Francis Bacon is charged with investigating the murder of a fellow barrister at Gray's Inn. He recruits his unwanted protégé Thomas Clarady to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a privateer, Clarady will do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder. Bacon's powerful uncle Lord Burghley suspects Catholic conspirators of the crime, but other motives quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the murdered man's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated ...

Professor & Mrs. Moriarty tackle a case too ticklish for Sherlock Holmes to handle on his own...James and Angelina Moriarty are settling into their new marriage and their fashionable new home — or trying to.Then Sherlock Holmes comes to call with a challenging case. He suspects a prominent Harley Street specialist of committing murders for hire, sending patients home from his private hospital with deadly doses or fatal conditions. Holmes wants to investigate, but the doctor’...

Anthony Bacon returns after thirteen years in France to live in his brother’s house at Gray’s Inn. Though seldom strong enough to leave his rooms, his gouty legs never hinder his agile mind. He’s built the most valuable intelligence service in Europe. Now the Bacon brothers are ready to offer it to the patron with the deepest pockets.Then Francis finds a body lying near Anthony’s coach. The clues inside point to Anthony’s secretary. Worse, the murdered man had been spreading rumors...

What happens when the Internet service provider in a small town spies on his clients' cyber-lives and blackmails them for gifts and services?Murder; that's what happens.Penelope Trigg moves to Lost Hat, Texas to open a photography studio and find herself as an artist. Things are going great. She's got a few clients, some friends, even a hot new high-tech boyfriend. But when Penny submits some nude figure studies of him to a contest, she gets hit with a blackmail letter in h...

“Either my theater is haunted or someone’s trying to drive me into bankruptcy!”Professor Moriarty’s new client is the manager of a West End theater. He’s three weeks away from opening his Chistmas pantomime, the expensive spectacle that pays for the rest of the year. But after months of freak accidents and spooky incidents, the cast and crew are convinced the show is cursed. Worse, he’s out of money and the rent is due.The Moriartys leap to the rescue. Ange...

All Francis Bacon wants is a book, but when he reaches his favorite bookshop, the printer drags him into a murder investigation.

London, 1593. An anonymous ballad calls for violence. The mayor offers 100 crowns for the author’s name. Thomas Clarady wants that money and drags Francis Bacon in to help.Then the authorities turn on two popular playmakers. One is tortured. Another is killed in a brawl. The official story seems plausible, but Tom doesn’t buy it. He refuses stop digging, uncovering a plot best left buried.Bacon and his team must hazard their lives to find the truth. Whether justice...

The most corrupt court in Elizabethan England has turned deadly.Francis Bacon’s clerk, Thomas Clarady, has finally passed the bar. Now it’s time to sue for his livery in the Court of Wards. Alas, nothing is simple in the most corrupt institution in Tudor England. The attorney tries to wring a bribe from Tom, who refuses in threatenting terms. When the attorney turns up dead, Tom’s the most likely suspect. He goes into hiding, leaving Bacon and Lady Dorchester to fi...

It’s 1589 and England is embroiled in a furious pamphlet war between an impudent Puritan calling himself Martin Marprelate and London’s wittiest writers. The archbishop wants Martin to hang. The Privy Council wants the tumult to end. But nobody knows who Martin is or where he’s hiding his illegal press.Then two writers are strangled, mistaken for Thomas Nashe, the pamphleteer who is hot on Martin’s trail. Francis Bacon is tasked with stopping the murders — and catching Martin, whil...

Jane Moone is hired to identify the witch who cursed a sheep. But her client, Kate Grazier, has already decided who did it -- Dorcas Whiting, the hedge witch who happens to be Jane’s father’s sweetheart. Dorcas would never harm an innocent sheep and everyone knows it, but she’s arrested before Jane can credit the accusation. Now she has to persuade the poorest farmers in the district -- Dorcas’s patients -- to stand before the magistrate in Greenslade Hall and testify on the witch’s behalf...

Thomas Clarady, Francis Bacon’s clerk, tackles a case on his own.When a beautiful young woman comes looking for Bacon’s special services, Tom offers himself as a ready substitute. He needs the money and Bacon would probably say no. But as the day progresses, he finds matching wits with the lady and her equally alluring sister to be trickier than he expected.

Agnes Merrythought, laundress for Gray's Inn, has to cope with two perplexing problems in one busy morning. First, she catches her daughter coming out of a barrister’s house, which can only lead to trouble. Then she learns that her no-good husband already had a wife when she married him. Luckily, there are advantages to washing clothes for a society of lawyers.