Death Among Fitful Shadows

Victoria Sedgewick's acceptance of a private case for a wealthy lady leads her into deeper danger than she ever imagined. But it isn't only her own life at peril... When her infant son is drawn into the dangerous game, Victoria enlists the help of Branwell Keats. Together, the pair must risk everything to win at all costs.

It is 1814 and Napoleon has abdicated as Emperor of the French. King Louis XVIII is brought out of his English exile and escorted back to France by an Allied squadron commanded by the Duke of Clarence. The "Great War" is at an end and Europe prepares to celebrate the return of legitimate monarchy. But the victorious Allies are increasingly suspicious of one another. Alexander I, the capricious Tsar of Russia, believes he is the savior of the world, while Great Britain—whose sea power has guaranteed victory at sea and contributed to the military success of Russia, Austria, and Prussia—remains at war with the United States of America. Out of the ashes of defeat, France’s greatest survivor, Talleyrand, prepares to restore his beaten country to the forefront of European politics. Amid this upheaval, discontented Bonapartists plot to restore the eagle whose shadow still lies across the continent. Attending King Louis, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is alarmed to receive secret intelligence that a new and imminent threat exists to peace.

A nameless friar turns up at Halfwell Station at the same time that Ana, the adopted daughter of the station owners, discovers a body in the desert during her midnight walk. But when Ana returns to look for it, the body is gone. Death Leaves the Station brings the cosy country-house intrigue of crime fiction's golden age to the Australian wheatbelt, and was written for fans of classic mystery and crime fiction.