The first title in The Victorian Mysteries series, sure to delight fans of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie

Kathryn Ardleigh is everything the Victorian English gentlewoman is not: outspoken, free-thinking, Irish-American, and a writer of penny-dreadfuls, sensational tales of adventure, romance, and crime-and-detection.

When she takes possession of Bishop's Keep, the Ardleigh estate in Essex England that she has inherited, she shocks the household and captures the attention of amateur detective Sir Charles Sheridan. Sir Charles is interested in the developing forensic sciences: toxicology, ballistics, fingerprints, X-ray, and crime scene photography.

Soon there is something to interest both Kate and Sir Charles: a recently-dead body just uncovered at a nearby archaeological dig. The investigation provides the perfect research background for Kate's next novel. But the inquisitive writer may be digging too deep-especially when the trail leads her into a secret occult society known as the Order of the Golden Dawn.