Francis Bacon is charged with investigating the murder of a fellow barrister at Gray's Inn. He recruits his unwanted protégé Thomas Clarady to do the tiresome legwork. The son of a privateer, Clarady will do anything to climb the Elizabethan social ladder. Bacon's powerful uncle Lord Burghley suspects Catholic conspirators of the crime, but other motives quickly emerge. Rival barristers contend for the murdered man's legal honors and wealthy clients. Highly-placed courtiers are implicated ...

Thomas Clarady risks his life, his eternal soul — and his chastity!Tom is recruited to spy on a group of radical Puritans at Cambridge University with Francis Bacon as his spymaster -- his tutor in tradecraft and politics. Their commission gets off to a deadly start when Tom finds his chief informant hanging from the roof beams. Now he has to catch a murderer as well as a seditioner. His first suspect is the volatile poet Christopher Marlowe, who keeps turning up in the ...

Welcome to Ayreford in 1591, where cats can talk and fairies are real.Jane Moone leaves her thriving practice as a cunning woman in London to return to Ayreford to care for her father Amias, who has grown quite peculiar in the years since she left home. Before she can find out what’s troubling him, her only client’s husband is murdered. The tailor is found in his workshop covered in red spots with a bottle of tonic from Moone’s apothecary near at hand. A rival cunning man accuses A...

Three award-winning historical mysteries in one convenient package!Francis Bacon reluctantly puts down his books to solve crimes in Elizabethan London, aided by Thomas Clarady, a privateer’s son who will do anything to climb into the gentry — or up to a lady’s bedchamber.In Murder by Misrule, Francis Bacon must catch a killer to regain Queen Elizabeth’s favor. He recruits handsome Thomas Clarady to chase witnesses from Whitehall to the London stree...

Professor James Moriarty has but one desire left in his shattered life: to stop the man who ruined him from harming anyone else. Then he meets Angelina Gould and his world turns upside down.At the International Exhibition, an exploding steam engine kills a man. When Moriarty tries to figure out what happened, he encounters Sherlock Holmes, sent to investigate by Moriarty’s old enemy. Holmes finds evidence that points at Moriarty, who now must either solve the crime or swing it for ...

Welcome to the imaginary worlds of award-winning author Anna Castle.This collection of short stories ranges through time and space from the Yucatán peninsula in the early years of the Spanish conquest (The Broken Circle) to a bank office in late Victorian London (The Stockbroker’s Wife.) Most stories feature Francis Bacon and other characters from his milieu. You’ll read about Bacon’s first case (For Want of a Book) and Tom’s first solo investigation (In Walked a L...

Agnes Merrythought, laundress for Gray's Inn, has to cope with two perplexing problems in one busy morning. First, she catches her daughter coming out of a barrister’s house, which can only lead to trouble. Then she learns that her no-good husband already had a wife when she married him. Luckily, there are advantages to washing clothes for a society of lawyers.

Professor and Mrs. Moriarty seek justice where the law can’t — or won’t — apply.In this series of lively stories, they assemble a band of misfits -- others who have been cast out or falsely accused -- to help them defend the victims of the rich and powerful in Victorian society. Their efforts often put them at odds with police consultant Sherlock Holmes.Book 1: Moriarty Meets His MatchProf. Moriarty has one desire in his ruined life: to destroy his e...

It’s 1589 and England is embroiled in a furious pamphlet war between an impudent Puritan calling himself Martin Marprelate and London’s wittiest writers. The archbishop wants Martin to hang. The Privy Council wants the tumult to end. But nobody knows who Martin is or where he’s hiding his illegal press.Then two writers are strangled, mistaken for Thomas Nashe, the pamphleteer who is hot on Martin’s trail. Francis Bacon is tasked with stopping the murders — and catching Martin, whil...

Melody Mockingbird, investigator for the Austin Druidic Detective Agency, must solve the murder of a beloved jazz singer before all memory of both the woman and the crime are extinguished.

The most corrupt court in Elizabethan England has turned deadly.Francis Bacon’s clerk, Thomas Clarady, has finally passed the bar. Now it’s time to sue for his livery in the Court of Wards. Alas, nothing is simple in the most corrupt institution in Tudor England. The attorney tries to wring a bribe from Tom, who refuses in threatenting terms. When the attorney turns up dead, Tom’s the most likely suspect. He goes into hiding, leaving Bacon and Lady Dorchester to fi...

London, 1588. Someone’s turning Catholics into widows...... and masking the crimes under cover of Armada fever. Francis Bacon is charged with identifying the murderer by the Andromache Society, a widows’ guild led by his formidable aunt. Thomas Clarady and Lady Alice Trumpington help investigate while struggling to keep themselves out of hot water. Bacon must free his friends from the Tower, track an exotic poison, and untangle several crimes to determine if the motive is patriotis...