Part of Lady Sherlock
First published 2024
Charlotte Holmes has earned a rare stretch of breathing room. Her success aboard the RMS Provence bought her time, and she has been using it carefully, working a plan to free her sister's beloved from Moriarty's hold. Then Lord Bancroft Ashburton reaches out from prison. He is disgraced, locked away partly because of Charlotte's own prior work, and yet he still finds leverage. His most trusted man, Underwood, has vanished. Lord Bancroft wants Charlotte to locate him, alive or dead, and he is not asking politely. Charlotte is used to standing on the side of the accusation, not the accused. Now she must run a search for a criminal's loyalist while protecting her own position and pushing forward her plans against Moriarty. Both missions pull at her. The sister she loves is waiting on the outcome of one. A man who helped ruin lives is demanding results on the other. Charlotte moves through both with the precision and control that define her, but the ground beneath her is less stable than it has ever been.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, adult-fiction, thriller, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, dark, intricate, suspenseful, tension-filled
Tropes: complex-protagonist, dual-plot-lines, high-stakes-mission, moral-ambiguity
Setting: RMS Provence, Prison
Period: 19th-century
335 pages · Paperback · Berkley
Content warnings: death, violence