Congratulations to Linda Stratmann, whose absorbing Victorian mystery, Sherlock Holmes and the Power Principle, is out now!
Sherlock Holmes and the Power Principle is the ninth book in the Early Casebook of Sherlock Holmes series.
1878
Sherlock Holmes and his good friend Mr Stamford are close to completing their education at London’s St Bartholomew’s Medical College, and Holmes is keen to begin a serious career as a detective.
So when a solicitor contacts him about a new case, he quickly accepts.
Mr Ineson is concerned for his client, the widow Mrs Beauregard, who is considering investing most of her considerable assets in a new company called Baumann Motors Ltd.
In an age of industry, machines are rapidly transforming the Victorian world, and fortunes can be made – or lost – by speculating on the latest enterprise.
The Baumann motor promises to change the world transport, make manufactured goods cheaper and allow trains to run without the need for coal.
But it has not been tested, and Ineson is worried that Mrs Beauregard has fallen for the charm of its inventor.
Holmes and Stamford attend a demonstration under the pretence of being interested in investing to try and discover if the motor is as miraculous as it sounds. But soon they are involved in an even deadlier mystery…
With Holmes’ reputation as a highly intelligent and intuitive detective at stake, can he discover the truth about the highly secretive company? Or will this case prove too challenging for even the most astute of men?
Congratulations to Elizabeth Bailey, whose absorbing historical mystery, The Killing Cave, is published today!
The Killing Cave is the eleventh book in the Lady Fan Mystery series: traditional British detective novels set in eighteenth-century England.
1799, England
A family holiday to the seaside takes a dramatic turn when Lady Ottilia Fanshawe’s young son Luke accidentally stumbles on a body in a cave.
Lady Fan and her husband Francis quickly rush to the scene and find the corpse bound and blindfolded with a bullet hole in his head.
It appears the man was executed, and with smugglers well-known to operate in the area, the local sergeant suggests it was a quarrel amongst the reprobates.
But Ottilia is not so sure. The crime scene seemed staged, and the dead man too well dressed to be a common criminal.
There is nothing else for it. The Fanshawes must extend their stay on the Norfolk coast to allow Lady Fan to take the lead.
But with her health compromised, four young children to care for and a grumbling mother-in-law in tow, can Lady Fan summon up enough strength to unravel this mystery? Or will this be the case that finally forces her into retirement?
