Clare Wille
1) Cranford
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Step into the charming world of "Cranford" by Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. This delightful novel invites you to a quaint English village, where the lives of its eccentric and endearing inhabitants are interwoven in a tapestry of humor, heartwarming moments, and social observations.
Set in the early 19th century, the narrative unfolds through the eyes of Mary Smith, an outsider welcomed into the close-knit community. As she navigates the idiosyncrasies...
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Three novellas that brilliantly portray English country and clergy life at the turn of the nineteenth century from the author of Middlemarch.
Initially appearing in Blackwood's Magazine, this trio of linked stories comprises George Eliot's first published work. Together they form a portrait of small-town life in Midlands, England, where changes are affecting both society at large and religious beliefs and institutions.
In "The Sad Fortunes...
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When they were children, Erica Calcott and her sister, Beth, spent their summer holidays at Storton Manor. Now, following the death of their grandmother, they have returned to the grand, imposing house in Wiltshire, England. Unable to stem the tide of childhood memories that arise as she sorts through her grandmother's belongings, Erica thinks back to the summer her cousin Henry vanished mysteriously from the estate, an event that tore their family...
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When her father has a crisis of conscious, Margaret Hale's life is turned upside down. Because her parents decide to move away from southern London, Margaret must leave behind the tranquil, rural life she's always known to settle in an industrial town called Milton. Though she does her best to assimilate, Margaret cannot help but feel trapped and hopeless in Milton, as she witnesses the brutal effects industrialization has on the environment and the...
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"Occult happenings, romantic passion, and murder disrupt the peace of a Berkshire village in 1911 in this hauntingly good novel."
-Marie Claire (UK)
Katherine Webb's debut novel, The Legacy, was an international bestseller-and her remarkable second effort, The Unseen, is as gripping, thrilling, and unforgettable as her first. In this compelling story of love, deception, obsession, and illusion, the arrival of two dangerous strangers in a small village...
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A ruined manor. A lost heir. A grumpy caretaker. And a young lady ready to stake her fortune that they are all worth redeeming.
Lonely and yearning for excitement, Miss Lenora Breckinridge stumbles upon an abandoned mansion near her new home and is mesmerized by the romantic possibilities. One taste of its sordid history and she is determined to be the heroine and redeem the manor, righting all its past wrongs. It couldn't be simpler; all she must...
8) Forlorn Hope
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A grand error lost her to him once. Given a second chance, will one unwise mistake lose her to him forever?
Captain Geoffrey Mantell has tried to be the friend Miss Emily Chandry never had, but it is a long time before he realizes she is much more to him than a mere friend. By the time he tries to profess his love he is too late-Emily has married out of desperation, and to a grasping, greedy businessman.
Seeing her unhappiness, Geoffrey is determined...
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An uneasy friendship turns into a dangerous game when the love of a woman is on the line.
Tom Breckinridge has been falling in love with Diana Marshall for the past year, but just when has decided to come to the point, a rival has come out of the woodwork: Reginald Popplewell, a childhood playmate of Diana's, and now heir to a viscountcy! Diana's father much prefers Reginald, but Tom believes Reginald has something to hide.
When Tom shares his doubts...
10) Murder offstage
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Like your mysteries cozy and set during the Golden Age of Crime? This is the first book in the Posie Parker mysteries, although this novel can be enjoyed as a stand-alone story in its own right. Set in London in 1921, 'Murder Offstage' is full of intrigue and red herrings. This is a classic murder mystery which will appeal to fans of Agatha Christie and Downton Abbey. When Posie Parkers childhood friend is robbed of a priceless jewel and becomes...
11) Dead Guilty
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Dead Guilty by Michelle Davies is the captivating fourth novel in the critically acclaimed Maggie Neville series, following False Witness.
Has the killer in DC Maggie Neville's cold case returned after a decade of silence?
Katy Pope was seventeen when she was brutally murdered on a family holiday in Majorca. Despite her mother's high rank in the Met and the joint major investigation between the British and Spanish police, Katy's killer was never...
12) Wrong Place
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Wrong Place is the second gripping crime novel in the DC Maggie Neville series from Michelle Davies, following her critically acclaimed debut Gone Astray.
Two women lie hospital beds, both subjects of police investigations.
One, a vulnerable old lady, has been assaulted in her own home. Suspected to be the fifth victim of a young couple targeting pensioners, her injuries indicate an escalation in violence from the perpetrators.
The second, a...
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The Serpent of Division features murder and mystery, a charming pirate, Oxford colleges and libraries, a buxom bookseller reminiscent of the Wife of Bath and a Persian physician with a fondness for Rumi. All have a part to play, as the granddaughter of Geoffrey Chaucer fights for survival against her ruthless neighbour Sir Robert Harcourt and the machinations of Elizabeth Wydeville, descendant of the serpent fairy Melusine and queen of Edward IV....
14) False Witness
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7.15am
Two children are seen on top of a wall in a school.
Shortly later one of them lies fatally injured at the bottom.
Did the boy fall or was he pushed?
As a family liaison offer, DC Maggie Neville has seen parents crumble under the weight of their child's death. Imogen Tyler is no different. Her son's fall was witnessed by the school caretaker and another pupil is under suspicion/being questioned, but Imogen is paralysed by questions....
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A glamorous perfume launch which reeks of nothing but death....
London, Midsummer, 1925.
London is in bloom and the sun is shining. But trouble is lurking around the corner.... Posie Parker has been summoned to Chelsea, to the House of Sinne, the fashionable London perfume house.
Anouk Sinne, the most brilliant perfumier of her age, has been receiving blackmail demands, and asks Posie to investigate. But is blackmail just the tip of the iceberg?...
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Sometimes the truth is as slippery as a mermaid... December, 1925 A dark, smog-filled London doesn't seem very Christmassy, or exciting, but then Posie Parker, London's premier female Private Detective receives an urgent call from one of her oldest friends; Rufus, Earl of Cardigeon. Summoned to 'The Mermaid', an ancient hotel in Rye, on the Sussex Coast, in the heart of smuggling country, Posie, together with her husband, Richard, finds her friend...
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What if the City of Light holds nothing but darkness?
January, 1926
Invited aboard the glamourous Night Train to Paris, and tasked with investigating the disappearance of her best friend, Dolly Cardigeon, Posie Parker suddenly finds herself right in the middle of a murder!
Controversial society beauty, Lady Caroline Greenlow, is on her way to Paris Fashion Week. She always has a habit of rubbing people up the wrong way, but things take a dreadful...
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LIGHTS, CAMERA, MURDER...
London, 1923
As England swelters during the hottest summer on record, Posie Parker, Private Detective, is summoned to Worton Hall Film Studios, where she steps into the heart of a sinister new mystery.
Silvia Hanro, the famously beautiful movie star, has received death threats alongside her morning coffee, and Posie is tasked with protecting her. Aided by her good friends Lady Dolly Cardigeon and Chief Inspector Richard...
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Under the Tuscan sun, ice-creams melt and dark secrets unravel…
March, 1925
Pregnant, bored, and longing for an adventure, Posie Parker accepts a rather last-minute Wedding Invitation from an old friend who is getting married out in the gorgeous town of San Gimignano, Tuscany.
But what Posie -and her husband, Richard Lovelace- arrive into is not a blissfully happy wedding party at all. It's a chaotic mix of mistrust, unfaithful fiancés, bizarre...
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What if everything you hold dear is blown apart by one fateful meeting?
Valentine's Day, 1926
When Posie Parker, London's premier female Detective, accidentally runs into an old family acquaintance, she is persuaded to leave town immediately and return to the place of her childhood roots - the beautiful and bleak Norfolk coast - to investigate a closed-room murder mystery which local police believe has a foregone conclusion.
But have the police...