Death and the Sisters

Before there was Frankenstein, a young Mary Shelley, her stepsister Jane ＂Claire＂ Clairmont, and poet Percy Bysshe Shelley are drawn into a shocking murder investigation in this deliciously captivating new historical mystery revolving around the real-life trio who would later scandalize 19th century England even as they transformed the literary world.

London, 1814: Mary Godwin and her stepsister Jane Clairmont, both sixteen, possess quick minds bolstered by an unconventional upbringing. Mary, whose mother famously advocated for women’s rights, rejects the two paths that seem open to her--that of an assistant in her father’s bookshop, or an ordinary wife. Though quieter and more reserved than the boisterous Jane, Mary’s imagination is keen, and she longs for real-world adventures.

One evening, an opportunity arrives in the form of a dinner guest, Percy Bysshe Shelley. At twenty-one, Shelley is already a renowned poet and radical. Mary finds their visitor handsome and compelling, but it is later that evening, after the party has broken up, that events take a truly intriguing turn. When Mary comes downstairs in search of a book, she finds instead a man face down on the floor--with a knife in his back.

Mary, Jane, and Shelley are all drawn to learn the truth behind the tragedy, especially as each discovery seems to hint at a tangled web that includes many in Shelley’s closest circle. But as the attraction between Mary and the married poet intensifies, it sparks a rivalry between the sisters, even as it kindles the creative fire within . . .

Heather Redmond is the author of the Mary Shelley Mysteries, Dickens of a Crime series and the Journaling Mysteries, as well as historical and contemporary romances written under the name Heather Hiestand. Though her last known British ancestor departed London in the 1920s, she is a committed anglophile, Dickens devotee, and lover of all things nineteenth century. She has lived in Illinois, California, and Texas, and now resides in a small town in Washington State with her husband and son. The president of the Columbia River Chapter of Sisters in Crime, she be found online at HeatherRedmond.com.