London 1889

When her soulmate, Jonathan August-Trelawney jilts her at the altar, Lily Pond is determined to live life on her own terms. Her friends aren’t afraid of giving their opinions, encouraging her to find someone else to marry, and swiftly. Lily has other ideas.

Apart from trying to discover what had discouraged Jonathan from turning up at the church, she is determined to help the children of the rookeries; the squalor-riven streets that are a blight on England’s great capital city. Fitzrovia is a stone’s throw from her home on Harley Street and she resolves to redress the balance.

The fog-bound alleyways, courtyards, narrow streets and doss houses where disadvantaged children play, are the stamping grounds of criminal gangs who think nothing of murdering someone for a penny. Learning of an illegal trade in Egyptian artefacts, Lily finds an unusual way to infiltrate the slums of St Giles. Her friend, Chief Detective Jeremiah Stride learns of her plan and encourages her to solve an unusual crime spreading its tentacles through the rookeries. Will those in the poverty-stricken East End of London be convinced by her subterfuge? Or will they decide she is a spy in their midst and carry out an East End punishment?

A Victorian cozy mystery from the writer of Camille Divine Murder Mysteries, 99 Nightingale Lane, and Mrs Coyle's Cookbook.

If you love Whitechapel, Ripper Street, Carnival Street, and historical mysteries, you'll love the Lily Pond Victorian Murder Mysteries.