The Janus Affair

Hang onto your bowler hats, agents Books and Braun of Britain’s top-secret Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences are back in The Janus Affair. In their second wildly imaginative, utterly fantastic steampunk adventure, authors Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris carry readers back to an alternate history Edwardian England, where suffragettes are inexplicably disappearing in flashes of lightning, and the brainy, intrepid Mr. Books and his partner, the fearless, lovely, weapons-loving Eliza Braun, must get to the bottom of the nefarious matter—while confronting high-flying assassins, a traitorous turncoat, and the Queen of the Underworld herself. The Janus Affair is the British TV classic, The Avengers, updated for the 21st Century and given a delectable steampunk twist—an Affair that will satisfy fantasy lovers, graphic novel aficionados, and dedicated fans of the novels of Gail Carriger.

"Certainly no strangers to peculiar occurrences, agents Wellington Books and Eliza Braun are nonetheless stunned to observe a fellow passenger aboard Britain's latest hypersteam train suddenly vanish in a dazzling bolt of lightning. They soon discover this is not the only such disappearance...with each case going inexplicably unexamined by the Crown. The fate of England is once again in the hands of an ingenious archivist paired with a beautiful, fearless lady of adventure. And though their foe be fiendishly clever, so then is Mr. Books...and Miss Braun still has a number of useful and unusual devices hidden beneath her petticoats."--P. [4] of cover.

Deceit and disappearing acts.Janice's husband, Ric, has gone missing.The police are at Janice's door, and so is the media. Pictures of Ric and the seductive but unstable daughter of the prime minister have hit the news."Have you ever suspected your husband of leading a double life?" asks the detective.To make matters worse, Ric's former fiancée, Justine, is alluding to even more secrets.Two women, practiced in avoiding each other, find their lives interwoven as they both try to find out what happened to Ric. But sometimes even two perspectives on the same man don't add up to the truth...".wonderfully witty, crisp and clever-sardonic without any lapses into the bitter. It's easy, swift reading, but it is by no means mere froth. In the end it seems to me to accomplish some profound illuminations in a deliciously light-fingered way - a most difficult achievement, done well." Joan Barfoot, award-winning author of 11 novels."Ric Hawthorne has disappeared, and neither his wife Janice nor his best friend Justine knows where he's gone. Their quest to find him, alternating between the two women's points of view, uncovers layer after layer of deception until they realize they never really knew Ric at all. This masterfully paced, deceptively sedate domestic mystery unfolds like a flower-or a pungent onion-and will keep you guessing until the end." Kim H., Red Adept Editing

Book two in this Edwardian steampunk adventure series, featuring two secret agents from the 'Ministry of Peculiar Occurences'. there's something rotten in the city of London. Women are disappearing - young and old, rich and poor, from all walks of society. the only thing they have in common is their belief that women also deserve the vote.It's up to the Ministry of Peculiar Occurences to find out why these women are vanishing, but agents Books and Braun have their own challenges. there's a turncoat with nefarious plans within the Ministry itself, and the reappearance of an old flame means their growing friendship is threatened.to say nothing of the queen of the underworld, tassassins-attacking-on-ornithopters, and a conspiracy that reaches to the heights of London Society.

It is April, 1929. Cyrus Skeen is recovering from his startling escapade in New York City, where he journeyed in March to attend to some of his father's business. There he met a captivating opera singer for whom he developed an affection almost bordering on love. But he loves Dilys much more. The singer introduces him to a concept, "metaphysical importance." Dilys is that to him.Dilys is interviewing models for her new studio. One of them is the irrepressible Valda Redfern.But no sooner does Skeen return than he is asked by Ernö Janus, the head of a San Francisco advertising agency, Guinevere Publicity, to investigate the death of his brother, a noted commercial illustrator, Miklós Janus, at the hands of an unknown hit-and-run driver. In the course of his enquiries, he encounters another femme fatale, Enid Coe, Miklós's favorite model for the agency's award-winning advertisements. He also meets Miklós's principal competitor for recognition and fame, Kenneth Bratton. He must also ward off the advances of the flirtatious Margit Kovács.In this fifteenth installment of the Skeen Mysteries, the detective digs deeper into Guinevere's secrets and rivalries, causing sparks to fly that end in a conflagration of death and mayhem.

An Edwardian steampunk adventure novel, featuring two secret agents from the 'Ministry of Peculiar Occurences,' who investigate a startling conspiracy. Evil is most assuredly afoot-and Britain's fate rests in the hands of an alluring renegade . . . and a librarian.these are dark days indeed in Victoria's England. Londoners are vanishing, then reappearing,washing up as corpses on the banks of the thames, drained of blood and bone. Yet the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences-the Crown's clandestine organisation whose bailiwick is the strange and unsettling-will not allow its agents to investigate. Fearless and exceedingly lovely Eliza D. Braun, however, with her bulletproof corset and a disturbing fondness for dynamite, refuses to let the matter rest ... and she's prepared to drag her timorous new partner, Wellington Books, along with her into the perilous fray. For a malevolent brotherhood is operating in the deepening London shadows, intent upon the enslavement of all Britons. And Booksand Braun-he with his encyclopaedic brain and she with her remarkable devices-must get to the twisted roots of a most nefarious plot ... or see England fall to the Phoenix!

Working for the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, one sees innumerable technological wonders. But even veteran agents Braun and Books are unprepared for what the electrifying future holds in the third novel in the steampunk adventure series. After being ignominiously shipped out of England following their participation in the Janus affair, Braun and Books are ready to prove their worth as agents. But what starts as a simple mission in the States—intended to keep them out of trouble—suddenly turns into a scandalous and convoluted case that has connections reaching as far as Her Majesty the Queen. Even with the help of two American agents from the Office of the Supernatural and the Metaphysical, Braun and Books have their work cut out for them as their chief suspect in a rash of nautical and aerial disasters is none other than Thomas Edison. Between the fantastic electric machines of Edison, the eccentricities of MoPO consultant Nikola Tesla, and the mysterious machinations of a new threat known only as the Maestro, they may find themselves in far worse danger than they ever have been in before…

A NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE The secret daughter of a French politician and a famous actress drops the startling revelation that will shatter her family in this beguiling debut novel of intrigue and betrayal. NAMED ONE OF SUMMER’S BEST BOOKS BY The Skimm • Marie Claire • LitHub • Subway Book Review • Paperback Paris Margot Louve is a secret: the child of a longstanding affair between an influential French politician with presidential ambitions and a prominent stage actress. This hidden family exists in stolen moments in a small Parisian apartment on the Left Bank. It is a house of cards that Margot—fueled by a longing to be seen and heard—decides to tumble. The summer of her seventeenth birthday, she meets the man who will set her plan in motion: a well-regarded journalist whose trust seems surprisingly easy to gain. But as Margot is drawn into an adult world she struggles to comprehend, she learns how one impulsive decision can threaten a family’s love with ruin, shattering the lives of those around her in ways she could never have imagined. Exposing the seams between private lives and public faces, The Margot Affair is a novel of deceit, desire, and transgression—and the exhilarating knife-edge upon which the danger of telling the truth outweighs the cost of keeping secrets.