Liberty Lane

A Liberty Lane mystery - Autumn, 1839. As the London nights darken, rumours spread about the devil's chariot, which preys on young women walking alone at night. Novice private investigator Liberty Lane has no time for such horror stories, so when a poetic young man begs her to find his missing fiancée, she accepts, suspecting there is a more prosaic explanation. Meanwhile, she is engaged to help prevent a royal scandal involving Prince Albert's worldlier brother, Prince Ernest. Liberty begins work on both cases, but when young women begin showing up dead, the tales of the devil's chariot don't seem so ridiculous any more.

Private investigator Liberty Lane faces the most challenging case of her career in this absorbing mystery|London, 1840. Private investigator Liberty faces a conundrum when her younger brother Tom, an East India Company employee, is unexpectedly summoned to London to give evidence at an official enquiry into the murder of a wealthy merchant's assistant, found with his throat cut en route to Bombay. A connection between the dead man and escalating rows with China over the lucrative opium trade has caused the government concern. Can Liberty solve a murder that took place six months previously almost five thousand miles away?

July, 1840. Did young Jack Picton, a known rebel and political agitator, kill governess Mary Marsh? Liberty Lane has left London for Cheltenham to find out, sharing the magistrate's doubts. He is, however, hiding something...but what? As Liberty is about to discover, behind Cheltenham's genteel façade lies a hotbed of vice. It is a place where the poor are driven to desperate lengths to escape the horror of the workhouse. A place which is harbouring a ruthless killer. Can Liberty uncover the truth in time?

September, 1840. Novelist and patron of the arts Lady Blessington has hired private investigator Liberty Lane to escort a French gentleman to The Hague. For he has in his possession important papers that will assist in the forthcoming trial of Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, the late emperor's nephew who has failed in an attempt to seize power in France. Plans for the undercover expedition are disrupted however when a body is found hanging in the attic at Gore House, Lady Blessington's Kensington mansion. Uncovering evidence that the murder was meticulously prepared for and planned well in advance, Liberty determines to track down the killer. But she is about to find herself plunged into a highly dangerous game involving blackmail, treachery, espionage-and cold-blooded murder.

A series of anonymous letters leads to a case of cold-blooded murder for 19th-century private investigator Liberty Lane. September, 1841. A new arrival has taken London society by storm. Lord Byron's handsome illegitimate son, George, recently arrived from the exotic island of Cephalonia in the company of his guardian, the mysterious Mr. Vickery, has been setting female hearts aflutter. But not all the attention George attracts is welcome. Mr. Vickery has been receiving disturbing letters from a woman who calls herself Helena, and he hires Liberty Lane to find out who Helena is and what she wants. As Liberty is to discover, there is more to this case than meets the eye. Is George really Lord Byron's son – or is he an imposter? And who exactly is Mr. Vickery? What is his agenda? When Liberty comes across a body shot dead near Mr. Vickery's home in Muswell Hill, the investigation takes a shocking turn.

Held captive by a ruthless gang of kidnappers, Liberty Lane must call on all her investigative skills to discover who has taken her – and why. July, 1847. Now a happily married mother-of-two, Liberty Lane is undertaking very few private investigative assignments. But when she is kidnapped from outside a smart London townhouse, where she had been attending a dinner party with her husband Robert, she must call on all her old investigative skills to discover who has taken her, and why. As Libby tries to formulate a plan of escape, her old friends, former street urchin Tabby and groom Amos Legge, desperately search for her. Convinced that somebody in the Maynard household, where the dinner party was held, knows something about Libby's disappearance, Tabby keeps watch on the house – and makes a truly shocking discovery.