Kirjahaku

"Either my theater is haunted or someone's trying to drive me into bankruptcy "Professor Moriarty's new client is the manager of a West End theater. He's three weeks away from opening his Chistmas pantomime, the expensive spectacle that pays for the rest of the year. But after months of freak accidents and spooky incidents, the cast and crew are convinced the show is cursed. Worse, he's out of money and the rent is due.The Moriartys leap to the rescue. Angelina takes on the leading role and James supplies the needed funds. While she works backstage uncovering secrets and grudges, he follows the money in search of a motive. Then someone sets Sherlock Holmes on their trail, trying to catch them crossing the line into crime.How far will Moriarty have to go to keep the show afloat? And will they all make it to opening night in one piece?

Secret trysts. Daring dalliances. And a body in the orchard.It's Midsummer, 1591, at Richmond Palace, and love is in the air. Gallant courtiers sport with great ladies while Tom and Trumpet bring their long-laid plans to fruition at last. Everybody's doing it -- even Francis Bacon enjoys a private liaison with the secretary to the new French ambassador. But the Queen loathes scandal and will punish anyone rash enough to get caught.Still, it's all in a summer day until a young man is found dead. He had few talents beyond a keen nose for gossip and was doubtless murdered to protect a secret. But what sort -- romantic, or political? They carried different penalties: banishment from court or a traitor's death. Either way, worth killing to protect.Bacon wants nothing more than to leave things alone. He has no position and no patron; in fact, he's being discouraged from investigating. But can he live with himself if another innocent person dies?"Characters that leap off the page." -- Karen Harper, NY Times best-selling author.

Anthony Bacon returns after thirteen years in France to live in his brother's house at Gray's Inn. Though seldom strong enough to leave his rooms, his gouty legs never hinder his agile mind. He's built the most valuable intelligence service in Europe. Now the Bacon brothers are ready to offer it to the patron with the deepest pockets.Then Francis finds a body lying near Anthony's coach. The clues point to Anthony's secretary. Worse, the murdered man had been spreading rumors that could destroy Anthony's reputation.Francis thinks his brother did it. Assistant Thomas Clarady thinks the secretary did it. As they investigate, they hear one story after another about what happened. Which is the truth? Can they sort through the lies before disaster strikes?

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 aging father Amias. She's scarcely settled in when 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 Amias of poisoning him and the old man is arrested. Jane knows her father is innocent. She joins forces with a handsome barrister to study the scene. They find evidence to support Amias, but each item is altered when a blackbird sings. That bird has been following them everywhere. Then things turn even more peculiar. Amias's ginger cat gives Jane wise counsel, a frog-pond fairy claims to know her long-lost mother, and a hedge witch shows Jane how to stop the malevolent fairy behind all the glamors. Either Jane is caught in a very strange dream, or Ayreford is thickly inhabited by the Fair Folk. Either way, Jane must do whatever she can, however bizarre, to save her father from hanging. Then she'll get the truth from him -- or possibly his cat.