In the dying days of 1850 the young detective Charles Maddox takes on a new case. His client? The only surviving son of the long-dead poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his wife Mary, author of Frankenstein. Charles soon finds himself being drawn into the bitter battle being waged over the poet's literary legacy, but then he makes a chance discovery that raises new doubts about the death of Shelley's first wife, Harriet, and he starts to question whether she did indeed kill herself, or whether what really happened was far more sinister than suicide. As he's drawn deeper into the tangled web of the past, Charles discovers darker and more disturbing secrets, until he comes face to face with the terrible possibility that his own great-uncle is implicated in a conspiracy to conceal the truth that stretches back more than thirty years. The story of the Shelleys is one of love and death, of loss and betrayal. In this follow-up to the acclaimed Tom-All-Alone's, Lynn Shepherd offers her own fictional version of that story, which suggests new and shocking answers to mysteries that still persist to this day, and have never yet been fully explained. Praise for Tom-All-Alone's: A brilliant and sinister remake of Bleak House, exposing the vicious underworld of Victorian London. Totally gripping. - John Carey. Dickens' s world described with modern precision. - The Times. Beaitifully written... an absorbing read - Literary Review. A necessary eye for squalor, meticulous research and deft plotting make this a book... you'll be guaranteed to enjoy. - Guardian.

London, 1850. Fog in the air and filth in the streets, from the rat-infested graveyard of Tom-All-Alone's to the elegant chambers in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where the formidable lawyer Edward Tulkinghorn has powerful clients to protect, and a deadly secret to hide. Only that secret is now under threat from a shadowy and unseen adversary - an adversary who must be tracked down at all costs, before it's too late. Who better for such a task than young Charles Maddox? Unfairly dismissed from the police force, Charles is struggling to establish himself as a private detective. Only business is slow and his one case a dead end, so when Tulkinghorn offers a handsome price for an apparently simple job Charles is unable to resist. But as he soon discovers, nothing here is what it seems. An assignment that starts with anonymous letters leads soon to a brutal murder, as the investigation lures Charles ever deeper into the terrible darkness Tulkinghorn will stop at nothing to conceal. Inspired by Charles Dickens' masterpiece "Bleak House", "Tom-All-Alone's" is a new and gripping Victorian murder mystery which immerses the reader in a grim London underworld that Dickens could only hint at - a world in which girls as young as ten work the night as prostitutes, unwanted babies are ruthlessly disposed of, and those who threaten the rank and reputations of great men are eliminated at once, and without remorse.

Samuel Richardson's novels have always been a particularly fertile seam for literary study, and in recent years they have been the subject of a whole range of different approaches, from the political and feminist, to those concerned with formal questions such as genre and epistolary technique. Richardson has also attracted considerable interest from an interdisciplinary perspective, with studies focusing on the pictorial and spatial elements of his works, and the illustrations he commissioned for Pamela. This extensively-illustrated monograph takes this approach one step further, and looks at issues of visual and verbal representation in Richardson from the perspective of eighteenth-century portraiture.
Richardson first became conversant with the conventions of contemporary portraiture in the wake of the phenomenal success of Pamela. It was then that he commissioned his first portrait, and became involved in the process of producing illustrations for the lavish sixth edition of the novel. This study makes the case that these two events combined to give Richardson a new vocabulary for the depiction of individual character, and the articulation of power, affection, and control within the family, and between men and women. We can see the first signs of this in Pamela II, which is so often dismissed and so little read, but it reaches its full maturity in the rich three-dimensionality of Clarissa. Moreover it is Richardson's use of the conventions of contemporary portraiture in Sir Charles Grandison that explains many of the tensions and inconsistencies within that text, and makes the reader's response to Richardson's 'good man' so ambivalent.

'A grisly period detective story.' The Times London, 1850: The Dickensian streets grow darker by the day. Private investigator Charles Maddox is surprised when he is approached by Edward Tulkinghorn for help. The feared and shadowy attorney offers Charles a handsome price he can't refuse to do some sleuthing for a client. Charles learns that Sir Julius Cremorne has been receiving threatening letters, and now Tulkinghorn wants him to find and stop whoever is responsible. But what starts as a simple, open-and-shut case swiftly escalates into something bigger and much darker. As he cascades toward a collision with powerful forces, Charles will need all the assistance he can get... The Man in Black takes a classic Charles Dickens novel and plummets readers into a newly reimagined and mysterious world. Fans of The Confessions of Frannie Langton and Stacey Halls will love this. Previously published as The Solitary House. Readers are loving The Man in Black: 'An intelligent and gripping post-modern crime novel. Beautifully written and cleverly plotted.' Lancashire Post 'You'll be guaranteed to enjoy.' Guardian 'This is a wonderful mystery... It has a dark Victorian tone, and is a gripping story. If you like literary historical mysteries, this is for you.' Reader Review '

Not all monsters remain fictional... Percy Shelley's legendary poetry lives on long after his death in 1850s England. But when his son and famed widow, Mary, are approached by a stranger offering to sell rare papers allegedly by Percy, Charles Maddox is called to look at the suspicious texts. But the case is not as simple as it appears, with Mary's bitter stepsister, Claire Clairmont, also on the scene. As the investigation grows more disturbing, shocking evidence of foul play is discovered, leaving Maddox hunting for an even darker truth... Taking inspiration from Mary Shelley's classic Frankenstein, Lynn Shepherd turns a literary legend into an otherworldly tale. Previously called A Treacherous Likeness.

The horrors linger beyond the castle walls... When Detective Charles Maddox is requested to look into the mysterious Baron Von Reisenberg, he welcomes the chance to trade London streets for a castle in the Viennese countryside. Though the Baron is the subject of macabre legends, Maddox doesn't care for supernatural beliefs. That is, until the foreboding shadows of the castle haunt him with nightmares and he is plagued by a series of disturbing incidents... Back home, London is on the verge of widespread panic. Greeted with a string of grisly murders committed by a killer branded the Vampire, Maddox believes he knows who is behind the attacks. In a battle against time, Maddox must finally end the Vampire's terror...before more blood is spilled. In a darkly twisted tale based on Bram Stoker's legendary Dracula comes a murder mystery set in the heart of Victorian London.

A Jane Austen heroine murdered. A literary villain turned hero. And an investigator between it all. The year is 1814 when Fanny Price is found murdered in Mansfield Park. Once a rich heiress who was spoiled, condescending, and generally hated throughout the county. But her death is none-the-less haunting. It then takes Mary Crawford, who is now as good as Fanny was bad, to team up with a thief-taker, Charles Maddox, from London to solve the brutal crime. But with dramatic confrontations comes consequences... some even deadly. A twisted take on Mansfield Park, Shepherd brings a brilliantly entertaining novel that offers Jane Austen fans an engaging new heroine - and mystery laced in every chapter. Previously published as Murder at Mansfield Park.

"Nobody, I believe, has ever found it possible to like the heroine of "Mansfield Park."" --Lionel Trilling
In this ingenious new twist on "Mansfield Park," the famously meek Fanny Price--whom Jane Austen's own mother called "insipid"--has been utterly transformed; she is now a rich heiress who is spoiled, condescending, and generally hated throughout the county. Mary Crawford, on the other hand, is now as good as Fanny is bad, and suffers great indignities at the hands of her vindictive neighbor. It's only after Fanny is murdered on the grounds of Mansfield Park that Mary comes into her own, teaming-up with a thief-taker from London to solve the crime.
Featuring genuine Austen characters--the same characters, and the same episodes, but each with a new twist--MURDER AT MANSFIELD PARK is a brilliantly entertaining novel that offers Jane Austen fans an engaging new heroine and story to read again and again.