Murder and Mayhem is a boxed set of four historical mysteries written by members of the Historical Fiction Authors Cooperative that will be only 99 cents between March 22-27.
♠♠♠♠
These four mysteries range in time periods and settings from I. J. Parker’s The Hell Screen, set in Medieval Japan, to Anna Castle’s Murder and Misrule, set in Elizabethan England, to Libi Astaire’s Tempest in the Tea Room, set in Regency England, to M. Louisa Locke’s Maids of Misfortune, set in Victorian San Francisco.
♠♠♠♠
The Hell Screen, set in eleventh century Japan, is the fifth novel in the series featuring government official Sugawara Akitada. Akitada, on his way to the bedside of his dying mother, spends the night in a temple whose great treasure is a brilliantly painted hell screen. Its violent imagery causes him to dream until he wakes to a scream that may have been part of the nightmare. Only after Akitada returns home to deal with his mother’s hatred and his sisters’ scandals does he realize that a woman was murdered while he slept and that he must find her killer to save his family.
♠♠♠♠
Thomas Clarady, son of a privateer, is a law student at Gray’s Inn, seeking to climb the Elizabethan social ladder by any means necessary. When his tutor is murdered during the Queen’s Day pageant, he hires Francis Bacon to replace him. Francis is requested by his uncle, the Lord Treasurer, to investigate the murder. Eager to curry favor with his powerful relation, he agrees, even though he rarely leaves his chambers and mislikes anything that takes time away from reading. Far better to send Tom out to find the clues and talk to the witnesses.
At first, Francis suspects Catholic conspirators murdered the lawyer to keep him from exposing their plot, but other motives quickly emerge. Renowned beauty Lady Penelope Rich fears the scandal of being dragged into court. High-tempered Sir Avery Fogg will stop at nothing to achieve a judgeship. Other barristers contend hotly for the murdered man’s legal honors, fine chambers, and wealthy clients.
Francis and Tom embark on an investigation that reaches from Whitehall to the London streets. Francis does the thinking; Tom does the fencing. Barristers fall down stairs – or are they pushed? Tom falls in love with a key witness and then can’t find her anywhere. Everyone has something up his pinked and padded sleeve. Even the brilliant Francis Bacon is at a loss – and in danger – until he sees through the disguises of the season of Misrule.
♠♠♠♠
There’s trouble afoot in Regency London’s Jewish community, and no one to stop the crimes—until wealthy-widower-turned-sleuth Mr. Ezra Melamed teams up with an unlikely pair: General Well’ngone and the Earl of Gravel Lane, the leaders of a gang of young Jewish pickpockets.
In this first volume of the Jewish Regency Mystery Series, a young Jewish physician is accused of poisoning his wealthy patient, Lady Marblehead, as well as stealing a priceless pearl bracelet from her jewelry box. After more outbreaks of the mysterious ailment occur in the city, an increasingly hysterical Jewish community turns to Mr. Melamed to investigate the case—who in turn enlists the aid of General Well’ngone and the Earl of Gravel Lane to find the real culprit.
♠♠♠♠
It’s the summer of 1879, and Annie Fuller, a young San Francisco widow, is in trouble. Annie’s husband squandered her fortune before committing suicide five years earlier, and to pay off a debt, one of his creditors is now threatening to take the boardinghouse she owns.
Annie Fuller also has a secret. She supplements her income by giving domestic and business advice as Madam Sibyl, one of San Francisco’s most exclusive clairvoyants, and one of her clients, Matthew Voss, has died. The police believe his death was suicide brought about by bankruptcy, but Annie believes Voss has been murdered and that his assets have been stolen.
Nate Dawson has a problem. As the Voss family lawyer, he would love to believe that Matthew Voss didn’t leave his grieving family destitute. But that would mean working with Annie Fuller, a woman who alternatively attracts and infuriates him as she shatters every notion he ever had of proper ladylike behavior.
Sparks fly as Anne and Nate pursue the truth about the murder of Matthew Voss in this light-hearted historical mystery set in the foggy gas-lit world of Victorian San Francisco.
♠♠♠♠
These four books, normally costing you 19.96, will be 99 cents until March 27, 2016 and can be found in the following bookstores: Kindle, Kobo, iTunes, Nook, Scribd and Page Foundry
Enjoy!
