The Secrets of Wishtide
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4.1 • 35 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
For fans of Alexander McCall Smith and James Runcie's Grantchester Mysteries, the first novel in a clever new crime series about Victorian London and an indomitable female detective.
Mrs. Laetitia Rodd, aged fifty-two, is the widow of an archdeacon. Living in London with her confidante and landlady, Mrs. Bentley, who once let rooms to John Keats, Laetitia makes her living as a highly discreet private investigator.
Her brother, Frederick Tyson, is a criminal barrister living in the neighboring village of Highgate with his wife and ten children. Frederick finds the cases, and Laetitia solves them using her arch intelligence, her iron discretion, and her immaculate cover as an unsuspecting widow. When Frederick brings to her attention a case involving the son of the well-respected, highly connected Sir James Calderstone, Laetitia sets off for Lincolnshire to take up a position as the family's new governess--quickly making herself indispensable. But the seemingly simple case--looking into young Charles Calderstone's "inappropriate" love interest--soon takes a rather unpleasant turn. And as the family's secrets begin to unfold, Laetitia discovers the Calderstones have more to hide than most.
Introducing an irresistible new detective, the first book in the Laetitia Rodd Mystery series will enthrall and delight.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Laetitia Rodd, the narrator of this lively series debut set in 1850 from British author Saunders (Night Shall Overtake Us), was left in reduced circumstances by her clergyman husband's death. Now living with her working-class friend and landlady, Mary Bentley, in the London village of Hampstead, Laetitia conducts confidential inquiries for her barrister brother, Frederick Tyson, to supplement her income and exercise her quick wits. Influential peer Sir James Calderstone hires the siblings to investigate the background of Helen Orme, the beautiful but mysterious widow whom his son, Charles, wants to marry against James's wishes. In the guise of a governess, Laetitia travels to Wishtide, the Calderstone Lincolnshire estate, where she discovers that not only Mrs. Orme but the Calderstones themselves are hiding scandalous secrets. When Mrs. Orme is found murdered and Charles is accused, Laetitia strives to save him from the gallows. Saunders explores Victorian sexual mores in a well-evoked historical world marred only by some overly complicated subplots.
