Anna Castle

It's 1589 and England is embroiled in a furious pamphlet war between an impudent Puritan calling himself Martin Marprelate and London's wittiest writers. The archbishop wants Martin to hang. The Privy Council wants the tumult to end. But nobody knows who Martin is or where he's hiding his illegal press. Then two writers are strangled, mistaken for Thomas Nashe, the pamphleteer who is hot on Martin's trail. Francis Bacon is tasked with stopping the...

It began as a harmless wager. Who could solve their case first?Professor and Mrs. Moriarty have a few weeks to kill before their theater opens. Happily, two small cases drop in their respective laps. Moriarty has what looks like a scheme to swindle Army veterans out of their discharge pay. Angelina must find a missing servant by winkling her way into a circle of officers' wives. Neither case seems terribly challenging; just enough to provide an agreeable...

Welcome to Ayreford in 1591, where cats can talk and fairies are real.b Jane Moone leaves her thriving practice as a cunning woman in London to return to Ayreford to care for her father Amias, who has grown quite peculiar in the years since she left home. Before she can find out what's troubling him, 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...

London, 1588. Someone's turning Catholics into widows... ... and masking the crimes under cover of Armada fever. Francis Bacon is charged with identifying the murderer by the Andromache Society, a widows' guild led by his formidable aunt. Thomas Clarady and Lady Alice Trumpington help investigate while struggling to keep themselves out of hot water. Bacon must free his friends from the Tower, track an exotic poison, and untangle several crimes to...

Professor & Mrs. Moriarty tackle a case too ticklish for Sherlock Holmes to handle on his own... James and Angelina Moriarty are settling into their new marriage and their fashionable new home - or trying to.Then Sherlock Holmes comes to call with a challenging case. He suspects a prominent Harley Street specialist of committing murders for hire, sending patients home from his private hospital with deadly doses or fatal conditions. Holmes wants to...

Professor and Mrs. Moriarty seek justice where the law can't - or won't - apply.In this series of lively stories, they assemble a band of misfits -- others who have been cast out or falsely accused -- to help them defend the victims of the rich and powerful in Victorian society.Book 1: Moriarty Meets His MatchProf. Moriarty has one desire in his ruined life: to destroy his enemy. Then he meets amber-eyed Angelina and his world turns upside down. Now...

Thomas Clarady risks his life, his eternal soul - and his chastity! Tom is recruited to spy on a group of radical Puritans at Cambridge University with Francis Bacon as his spymaster -- his tutor in tradecraft and politics. Their commission gets off to a deadly start when Tom finds his chief informant hanging from the roof beams. Now he has to catch a murderer as well as a seditioner. His first suspect is the volatile poet Christopher Marlowe, who...

Spring, 1593. A ballad is posted in the heart of London inciting violence. The Lord Mayor offers 100 crowns for the name of the author. Thomas Clarady wants that money and drags Francis Bacon into the game. At first it's just a riddle to be solved. Tom talks to poets, while Francis analyzes the verse. Things take a dangerous turn when the authorities focus on two popular playmakers. One is cruelly tortured. Another is killed in dubious circumstances....

An old friend brings a strange problem to Professor and Mrs. Moriarty: either his theater is being haunted by an angry ghost or someone is trying to drive him into bankruptcy. That would shut down his Christmas pantomime before it opens, throwing two hundred people out of work. The Moriartys can't let that happen! Besides, Angelina is longing to play the lead in a West End show and James needs a bigger challenge than yet another high-stakes game of...