18 books like Take Your Breath Away
Death at the Abbey
A Victorian-era undertaker plans a funeral for an eccentric duke's pet raven—but the bird's death is soon followed by murder: “A most unusual heroine.” (Publishers Weekly). While on a much-needed respite with her husband Sam in Nottinghamshire, undertaker Violet Harper is summoned to Welbeck Abbey by the Fifth Duke of Portland to prepare a body. His Grace is known as the “mad duke,” and Violet…
Shares: English literature, Mystery
From Cradle to Grave
Lady Georgiana “Georgie” Rannoch is just like any other new mother, balancing responsibilities of being 34th in line for the British throne and solving the shocking deaths of several young men, in this new Royal Spyness novel from the queen of historical mystery, Rhys Bowen.
Georgie may be figuring out what it means to be a new mother but she does know one thing for sure: she absolutely despises…
Shares: English literature, Mystery
All That Is Hidden
"Retired" detective and police captain's wife Molly Murphy Sullivan tangles with Tammany Hall in the next in Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles's New York Times bestselling historical mystery series. New York, Autumn, 1907: Former private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is happy with her place in the world. She and her policeman husband, Daniel, have built quite a life for themselves in Greenwich…
Shares: English literature, Mystery
In Sunshine or in Shadow
Janet Quin-Harkin (born 24 September 1941, Bath, SomersetElizabeth Blakesley Lindsay, ed., Great Women Mystery Writers, 2nd ed. Greenwood Press, 2007, p. 27.) is an author best known for her mystery novels for adults written under the name Rhys Bowen.
Shares: English literature, Mystery
The melody of death
Gilbert Standerton learns that he has been disinherited by his cantankerous uncle, and is forced to find a way to provide for his newly-wedded high-society wife. After quitting his appointment at the Foreign Office, he develops a new interest in the stock market, and takes an avid interest in the antics of a gang of safe-cracking burglars. His wife becomes concerned as he frequently begins…
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L'affaire Lerouge
Le jeudi 6 mars 1862, surlendemain du Mardi gras, cinq femmes du village de La Jonchere se presentaient au bureau de police de Bougival.
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Dead Men Tell No Tales
The classic story ties together themes of adventure and romance. Hornung's traditional writing style is incredibly descriptive and can be often relaxing to read. The story of Dead Men Tell No Tales doesn't rush but rather takes it's time to develop characters and provide indulgent details for readers. The tale of Mr. Cole and Ms. Eva is an excellent addition to any library and showcases some of…
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The Talleyrand Maxim
The “Talleyrand Maxim” holds that “With time and patience, the mulberry leaf is turned into satin.” The adage has the character of guidance for life for an ambitious legal clerk, Linford Pratt. Unlike most people, he decides to take extreme measures to get what he believes is his due.
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At the Villa Rose, in Four acts
The place: Aix-les-Bains, a lakeside town in southeast France, popular for vacations of the well-to-do.
The players:
(1) The young Englishman, Harry Wethermill, who, after a brilliant career at Oxford and at Munich, had applied his scientific genius and made a fortune for himself at the age of twenty-eight.
(2) Mr. Ricardo, approaching the fifties in age; a widower — "a state greatly to his…
Shares: Mystery
The House in Lordship Lane
Enter Bryan Devisher, over the side of the ketch in which Mordaunt was taking Mr. Julius Ricardo home to London on the summons of his old friend, Inspector Hanaud of the Paris Surete and the English ' idioms.' Exit, Devisher and Mordaunt. Enter Daniel Horbury. Exit Daniel Horbury-violently, with his throat slit in the garden room of the House in Lordship Lane, with Olivia, his wife, locked in her…
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L' Argent des autres
Vainement on chercherait dans Paris une rue plus paisible que la rue Saint-Gilles, au Marais, a deux pas de la place Royale.La, pas de voitures, jamais de foule. A peine le silence y est rompu par les sonneries reglementaires de la caserne des Minimes, par les cloches de l'eglise Saint-Louis ou par les clameurs joyeuses des eleves de l'institution Massin a l'heure des recreations.Le soir, bien…
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A Judgement in Stone
"A classic."--The London Times What on earth could have provoked a modern day St. Valentine's Day massacre?On Valentine's Day, four members of the Coverdale family--George, Jacqueline, Melinda and Giles--were murdered in the space of 15 minutes. Their housekeeper, Eunice Parchman, shot them, one by one, in the blue light of a televised performance of Don Giovanni. When Detective Chief…
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The Inklings Detective Agency
J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Agatha Christie, and other literary legends join forces to unravel a deadly conspiracy in this gripping mystery that sweeps from the halls of Oxford to the streets of London and the shores of Loch Ness. “This multiverse adventure is imaginative, intriguing, and wildly satisfying.”—John Hendrix, New York Times bestselling illustrator and author of The Mythmakers: The…
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The Briar Club
Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendship: poised English beauty Fliss, whose facade of…
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A Gentleman of Very Few Words
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Murder and the Missing Treasure
A pirate’s treasure, lost for decades, lures the greedy and adventurer alike. Did someone commit murder to get their hands on it?
When the celebrated biographer of the infamous pirate Blackheart takes a suite at the Mayfair Hotel to live out his final months, Goliath the porter is desperate to ask the one question that has haunted treasure hunters for decades: Where is the loot buried?…
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Murder at the Dressmaker's Salon
With the social season just around the corner, the women in Cleo’s family are having new outfits made by the most sought-after designer in the city. Madame Poitiers is bold, self-absorbed and not French, despite her claims. When Cleo stumbles on her dead body in the salon, she is in a unique position to gather clues and speak to witnesses. But she doesn’t expect to find Harry Armitage’s business…
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The Lotus Shoes
An empowering, uplifting tale of two women from opposite sides of society, and their extraordinary journey of sisterhood, betrayal, love and triumph. 1800s China. Tightly bound feet, or "golden lilies," are the mark of an honorable woman, eclipsing beauty, a rich dowry and even bloodline in the marriage stakes. When Little Flower is sold as a maidservant--a muizai--to Linjing, a daughter of the…
Shares: Mystery