Part of Lady Sherlock, book 9
First published 2026
Charlotte Holmes enjoys a peaceful summer at Lord Ingram's North Devon cottage when Mrs. Watson receives an unexpected invitation. Her estranged sister Mrs. Carstairs wants a reconciliation at her nearby manor house party. Mrs. Carstairs has married into wealth and become mistress of a grand estate, but Mrs. Watson suspects ulterior motives behind this sudden outreach. Despite her misgivings, Mrs. Watson cannot ignore lingering feelings for her once beloved sister. The reunion never happens. Mrs. Carstairs disappears completely from her own home. A woman's body washes up in the Bristol Channel the next day, matching Mrs. Carstairs in build and appearance. Her husband refuses to identify the corpse as his wife. Charlotte must determine whether Mrs. Carstairs orchestrated her own disappearance to draw Mrs. Watson into a murder case, or if she specifically needed Sherlock Holmes involved from the start. The investigation forces Mrs. Watson to confront old family wounds while Charlotte unravels a mystery that threatens someone she holds dear.
Genres: historical-fiction, mystery, adult-fiction, detective
Vibes: atmospheric, emotionally-complex, family-drama, intricate, suspenseful
Tropes: family-reconciliation, hidden-motives, mystery-investigation, unreliable-circumstances
Setting: North Devon, Bristol Channel, England
Period: 19th-century, Victorian-era
333 pages · Paperback · Berkley
Content warnings: death, murder