Linda Stratmann

The year is 1880. In West London, a dedicated doctor collapses and dies on the same night that one of his most reliable employees disappears. Frances Doughty, a young sleuth with a reputation for solving knotty cases, is engaged to find the missing man, but nothing is as it seems.

London, 1881: A body is found in the Paddington canal basin, and a woman claims that the remains are those of her missing husband, who disappeared three years ago. Unable to prove her case, she appeals to Frances Doughty to investigate. Frances soon learns that the missing man has secrets of his own, and, when a witness is viciously attacked, it becomes clear that she must choose her allies wisely.

Young sleuth Frances Doughty is trying to discover who distributed dangerously feminist pamphlets to the girls of the Bayswater Academy for the Education of Young Ladies. Armed with only her wits, courage and determination, her enquiries expose lies, murders and a long-concealed scandal, and she makes a powerful new friend.

When a customer of William Doughty's chemist shop dies of strychnine poisoning, William is blamed, and the family faces ruin. William's daughter, Frances, is convinced that the death was murder, but unable to convince the police, she turns detective. Aided by some unconventional friends, Frances uncovers a startling deception and solves a ten-year-old murder.

London 1882: When a wealthy philanthropist disappears from a locked and guarded room, Frances Doughty is reluctantly drawn into a case that tears the veil of mystery from her own past. Can London’s very own Lady Detective solve this sinister new case before a murderer catches up with her and she becomes the next victim?