Cold Stone Ivy

Jack the Ripper gave her his heart. Now he wants it back. The year is 1888, the clockwork British Empire is crumbling and young writer Ivy Savage has literally received a heart in the post. Terrified, her father sends her north to a strange sanitarium in Lancashire where the brilliant but unpredictable "Mad Lord of Lasingstoke" makes his home. Here, Ivy finds the dead are as dangerous as the living and she is immediately swept into a world of manners, mystery, and supernatural intrigue, uncovering a secret that will lead both her and the Mad Lord back to London and the dark streets of Whitechapel.

Jack the Ripper gave her his heart. Now he wants it back. The year is 1888, the clockwork British Empire is crumbling and young writer Ivy Savage has literally received a heart in the post. Terrified, her father sends her north to a strange sanitarium in Lancashire where the brilliant but unpredictable "Mad Lord of Lasingstoke" makes his home. Here, Ivy finds the dead are as dangerous as the living and she is immediately swept into a world of manners, mystery, and supernatural intrigue, uncovering a secret that will lead both her and the Mad Lord back to London and the dark streets of Whitechapel.

"The Crown Prince is dead, shot in the head. War is coming on iron feet." A murdered Prince. A Gilded Empire. A clockwork locket that tick-tocks dark matter. The year is 1889 and Austria's Crown Prince Rudolf has been found with a bullet in his brain. Immediately, all eyes are turned to the Empire of Steam's Mad Lord of Lasingstoke, a notorious ghost hunter and the last man to see the Crown Prince alive. As the first whispers of war cast a preternatural shadow over Europe, an international manhunt is launched to see the Mad Lord and his clockwork brother swiftly brought to justice. Unfortunately, young criminologist Ivy Savage has written herself into the plot and it takes all of her resourcefulness to keep them one step ahead of the firing squad. From airships over the Black Forest to a stolen ride on the Orient Express, it's clear that the Gilded Empire is not the only thing hunting the Mad Lord. Ghost horses and iron giants, long-dead saints and an archduchess more cable than flesh; all want something from the de Lacey brothers, not the least of which being the resurrection of the crown prince himself. But Ivy knows that at the heart of it, two lockets alone control the destiny of Empires and the clockwork is ticking as they race back to Vienna and the dangerous labyrinth that lies beneath...

An unwelcome blast from the past puts Patrick and Ingrid back in harm’s way . . . Nicholas Haldane was dead, but he wouldn’t lie down. And now Julian Hardy, the man who hired him in a bid to destroy Richard Daws, a top official in the National Crime Agency, is out of prison and has changed his surname to Mannering. Patrick Gillard, working for the agency but within the Avon and Somerset force with his wife Ingrid Langley, receives a request from MI5, for whom he used to work, to investigate Mannering. They are then called in when his cleaner makes a shocking discovery. Meanwhile, an enigmatic couple calling themselves Simon and Natasha Graves turn up in the village, intent on pestering Patrick’s recently widowed mother. Could there be a connection to Mannering? Patrick and Ingrid are soon embroiled in a deeply personal and disturbing case.

Outstanding Debut Novel from an Author to Watch Kaine Prescott is no stranger to death. When her husband died two years ago, her pleas for further investigation into his suspicious death fell on deaf ears. In desperate need of a fresh start, Kaine purchases an old house sight unseen in her grandfather's Wisconsin hometown. But one look at the eerie, abandoned house immediately leaves her questioning her rash decision. And when the house's dark history comes back with a vengeance, Kaine is forced to face the terrifying realization she has nowhere left to hide. A century earlier, the house on Foster Hill holds nothing but painful memories for Ivy Thorpe. When an unidentified woman is found dead on the property, Ivy is compelled to discover her identity. Ivy's search leads her into dangerous waters and, even as she works together with a man from her past, can she unravel the mystery before any other lives--including her own--are lost?