Lady C. Investigates: The Complete Collection

FIVE full-length standalone light historical mysteries in one volume! Join Cordelia, Lady Cornbrook and her eclectic household as she fights crime, unearths secrets, and fends off the advances of unsuitable men.

These Victorian murder mysteries are set in Britain in the 1840s, and take a light, frothy look at the fun side of history. It’s not quite Dickens. Maybe Dickens at a party after a few too many brandies. They are rooted in accuracy, though (there are author’s notes at the back and everything, which makes it legit).

In An Unmourned Man, we meet Cordelia for the first time. She’s widowed, titled, entitled, and plunged into an exciting adventure which features a country doctor wearing only his shirt and breeches. There’s callisthenics, a surly coachman, a cad with copious facial hair, laudanum and society balls.

Riots and Revelations takes us to the grim north, which is all mills and rain and working class uprisings. There’s a dashing cavalry officer and a passionate rabble-rousing Chartist, trouble at t’mill, wayward servants, night-time escapades with weaponry, and a large pig.

In The House of Secrets and Lies returns Cordelia to London, and to the heart of British politics, which is actually more interesting than it sounds. Cordelia vows to stop a miscarriage of justice. But she is too rich to go into the lowest parts of Victorian London, too female to go into the clubs and coffee houses, and too scandalous to go to the parties and balls.

The fourth book, Daughters of Disguise, leaves England and takes Cordelia and her household to Wales. It’s a different country, with its own language, its own traditions, and its own history of justice. Cordelia has joined forces with the local constable, and together they are up against not only the murderer, but the local council ... and even the local people.

And finally, in The Continental Gentleman, she confronts her past. It’s not pleasant, but luckily she’s armed with a short, stabby sword. It’s late summer and Cordelia is rattling around her Surrey estate, annoying the servants and causing the gardeners to hide in the bushes. Her old friend – or nemesis – Hugo Hawke turns up, and he’s closely followed by his own past. It’s good news … at first.

These novels contain innuendo but no graphic scenes or language, and may be considered clean and suitable for all readers.