Victorian Thriller

Kate Ardleigh is everything the Victorian English gentlewoman is not - outspoken, free-thinking, American...and a writer of the frowned upon penny dreadfuls. Soon after her arrival in Essex, England, a body is unearthed in a nearby archeological dig - and Kate has the chance to not only research her latest story but to begin her first case with amateur detective Sir Charles Sheridan.

Edgar Award winner Otto Penzler returns with a new anthology of exhilarating mysteries, assembling Victorian society's lords and ladies and most miserable miscreants. Behind the velvet curtains of horse-drawn carriages and amid the soft glow of the gaslights are the detectives and bobbies sniffing out the safecrackers and petty purloiners who plague everything from the soot-covered side streets of London to the opulent manors of the countryside. Brush off your dinner jackets and straighten out your ball gowns for these exciting, glitzy mysteries.

As one of the first female reporters on 1880s Fleet Street, Penny Green has her work cut out. Whether it's investigating the mysterious death of a friend or reporting on a serial killer in the slums, Penny must rely on her wits and determination to discover the truth. Fortunately she can rely on the help of Inspector James Blakely of Scotland Yard, but will their relationship remain professional?

Katherine Hamilton's goal in high school was to escape from her dead-end hometown of Asheboro, Maryland. Fifteen years later she's got a degree in hospitality management and a great job at a high-end boutique hotel in Baltimore. Until, that is, the hotel is acquired by a chain, and she's laid off. When Kate's high school best friend calls with a mysterious invitation to come talk with the town leaders of Asheboro, she agrees to make the trip, curious about where this new opportunity might lead.

After 15 years away, Kate Hamilton never expected to end up back in her hometown of Asheboro, Maryland, full time. And she definitely didn't expect to be leading the charge of recreating the town as a Victorian village and tourist attraction. The Barton mansion, meant to be the centerpiece of the Victorian village, has proven to be a veritable goldmine of documents about the town's 19th-century history, and Kate is convinced the papers hide something of value. Then a dead body turns up in the town library - mere hours before the documents were meant to arrive there themselves.

Three novellas to expand and enrich the world of Victorian Gothic: A Spurned Woman follows a reclusive old woman, tired of life. When she is surprised by a young mother, begging help for her stricken child, the old woman reluctantly agrees to return to the village which once wanted to burn her for witchcraft. Bedlam is set between Victorian Gothic Volumes 2 and 3.

When Aurelie Harcourt's father dies in debtor's prison, he leaves her just two things: his wealthy family, whom she has never met, and his famous pen name, Nathaniel Droll. Her new family greets her with apathy and even resentment. Only the quiet houseguest, Silas Rotherham, welcomes her company. When Aurelie decides to complete her father's unfinished serial novel, she must keep her identity as Nathaniel Droll hidden while searching for the truth about her mother's disappearance - and perhaps even her father's death.

After the last shots of World War II were fired and the process of rebuilding Germany and Europe began, the Western Allies and the Soviet Union each tried to obtain the services of the Third Reich's leading scientists, especially those involved in rocketry, missile technology, and aerospace research. Naturally, this was a delicate affair due to the fact many of the German scientists were not only active Nazis but had helped the Nazi war machine terrorize the world. At the same time, near the end of the war, the Anglo-American Allies formed a clear picture of the Soviet state.

Penny dreadful writer Kate Ardleigh solves one mystery after another in this bundle collection of the first three titles in Robin Paige's Victorian Mystery series.

Bath, England, 1890. Mystery author Lady Amy Lovell receives an anonymous letter containing shocking news: her fiancé, Mr. Ronald St. Vincent, has been dabbling in something illegal, which causes her to promptly break their engagement. Two evenings later, as Lady Amy awaits a visit from Lord William Wethington, fellow member of the Bath Mystery Book Club, her former fiancé makes an unexpected and most unwelcome appearance at her house.

London, 1890. When the body of a wealthy widow is found in the neglected graveyard of St Anne’s Church, Soho, Emma Langley and Penny Green soon discover her respectable façade concealed a web of bitter enemies. From a disgraced doctor stripped of his livelihood to a governess whose reputation was destroyed by lies, the victim, Mrs Melbourne, left a trail of devastation in her wake. Then Mrs Melbourne’s Belgravia mansion is consumed by a mysterious fire. Emma and Penny must race to decipher water-damaged papers salvaged from the ruins that could hold the key to the truth.

Georgia Fenchurch is a demure Victorian spinster and part of the secretive investigative group the Archivist Society. She is both a quiet antiquarian bookseller and adventurous hunter of killers and thieves. The enigmatic Duke of Blackford returns to Georgia's life asking for her help and that of the Archivist Society in retrieving stolen blueprints. The plans are for an advanced battleship that will preserve Britain's mastery of the seas. Spies from various countries are descending on London in the hunt for the blueprints, ready to enter into a bidding war.

London, 1888. While Jack the Ripper's reign of terror grips the city, Emma Langley's world shatters when her husband is found murdered in Whitechapel. But grief is quickly overshadowed by a startling discovery: William Langley was not the man she thought she knew. As panic fills London's streets, Emma delves into her husband's secret life, uncovering a web of lies that stretches from glittering society drawing rooms to the seedy gambling dens of the East End. Aided by Penny Green, a former reporter with a nose for trouble, Emma follows a trail of blackmail and corruption.

When Emma Langley discovers a mysterious symbol in her late husband's diary, she uncovers a connection to a secretive treasure-hunting group with powerful members. Her investigation takes an unexpected turn when Lord Charles Harpole, a society member, is found dying in his hotel room. The authorities rule it suicide, but Emma and her friend Penny Green aren't convinced. As they follow a trail of cryptic clues leading from St. Paul's Cathedral to Hampton Court, they find themselves caught in a deadly game.

Living in Victorian London is difficult at the best of times. So, instead of following in his father’s footsteps, Albert decides on adventure. However, fate has other plans. One drunken night on his way home, he responds to the blood-curdling scream of a woman. He rushes her attacker and in the ensuing fight, he is bitten. Albert's world is changed forever. With that one savage bite, he is turned into a monster that people had believed was just a creation of an author's mind.

When Lady Cordelia, a brilliant mathematician, and her brother, Lord Woodbridge, disappear from London, rumors swirl concerning fraudulent bank loans and a secret consortium engaged in an illicit - and highly profitable - trading scheme that threatens the entire British economy. The incriminating evidence mounts, but for Charlotte and Wrexford, it's a question of loyalty and friendship. And so they begin a new investigation to clear the siblings' names, uncover their whereabouts, and unravel the truth behind the whispers.

For Kathryn Ardleigh and her newly Lorded husband Charles, a seaside holiday in Rottingdean is a much-needed respite. Known as Smuggler's Village, the cozy hamlet sits upon a labyrinth of hundred-year-old tunnels through which contraband goods were once smuggled in and out of England.

Georgia Fenchurch is a demure Victorian spinster and part of the secretive investigative group the Archivist Society. She is both a quiet antiquarian bookseller and adventurous hunter of killers and thieves. When a woman comes into Georgia's bookshop asking for the Archivist Society's help in finding her neighbor, she sends Georgia and her friends onto a perilous path where aristocrats lie to them, thugs attack, and the dashing, enigmatic Duke of Blackford appears to be involved in thwarting them at every step.

Miss Penelope Monckton, just returned from nursing with Florence Nightingale's in Crimea, has come to the country estate of one of the most scandalous men in England, Lord Rickarby—nicknamed Rakerby—to collect a bequest from his late wife, her childhood friend Millie. But something about Millie's death doesn't sit right with Penny. A celebrated painter, Joss, Lord Rickarby, knows Miss Penelope Monckton only from the letters she sent to his late wife during her time nursing in a war zone.

While Kate winds her way through the elaborate manor, gaining inspiration for her next Gothic novel, Lord Charles discovers the reason behind their journey. It seems Prince Eddy, heir to the throne until his purported death in 1892, has actually been alive all these years. Deemed unfit to rule, he has been living secretly at Glamis under an assumed name. But now the prince has gone missing—on the very morning the body of one of his servants was found, her throat slashed in a manner eerily reminiscent of the Ripper's.