Set in 1876, Cox's gripping second gothic thriller (after The Meaning of Night) follows the fortunes of 19-year-old orphan Esperanza Gorst, whose guardian charges her to go undercover as a lady's maid. Without knowing precisely why she's doing so, Gorst insinuates herself into the inner circle of Baroness Tansor, the fiancée of the preceding volume's villain, Phoebus Daunt. The fake maid soon learns that her mistress has many secrets, and may, in fact, have been complicit in the death of a former servant. Cox excels at conveying his heroine's conflict over deceiving her employer, especially after learning the role the lady played in her own difficult personal history.
No longer the well-beloved, Louis XV is becoming ever more unpopular – the huge expense of his court and decades of costly warfare having taken their toll. As the discontent grows, Louis seeks refuge in his extravagances and his mistress, the powerful Marquise de Pompadour. Suspicions, plots and rivalry are rife as Louis’s daughters and lovers jostle for his attention and their own standing at Court. Ignoring the unrest in Paris, Louis continues to indulge in frivolities. But how long will Paris stay silent when the death of the Marquise de Pompadour leads to yet another mistress influencing the King?
In harvest time of 1436, Joliffe's troupe leader falls, leaving his players to find what work they can while he recovers. Joliffe finds work in a hospital where he unfortunately has to deal with Mistress Cisily Thorncoffyn, a widow expecting to be endlessly waited on for her mostly imaginary ailments. When patients begin mysteriously dying, Mistress Thorncoffyn loudly insists that someone is trying to kill her. With so many suspects wishing her ill, if not outright dead, Joliffe has no choice but to find out whose anger has turned to murderous hatred and whether-having missed their target-they mean to try again...
Actress Caroline Fawley is enjoying life in her new role as 'the mistress of Alderley'. Her TV work made her popular and wealthy and she laps up the attention she receives from her new neighbours in the Yorkshire village, Alderley. And the romantic weekend visits from her boyfriend, supermarket heir Marius Fleetwood, provide the locals with something to gossip about. But Caroline's idyllic life is shattered when a young man looking remarkably like Marius unexpectedly turns up on her doorstep. Within a few weeks Marius has gone missing and it isn't much longer before a body turns up...
Dorina Basarab is a dhampir - half-human, half-vampire. Back home in Brooklyn after the demise of her insane Uncle Dracula, Dory's hoping her life is about to calm down. But soon Dory realizes someone is killing vampire Senate members, and if she can't stop the murderer, her friends may be next.
