A classic 1940's style mystery... "Secretary Murders Widowed Mistress in Adelaide Love Nest!" Vivian Sherlock glanced from the screaming headline on her daily newspaper to the pale young man sitting on the other side of her desk. "Nigel is innocent!" insisted the young man.

Alexander Langley wasn't looking for trouble but Charlotte Porter found him anyway. Only, this new partnership has them in over their heads and way before their time. 2020 WATTYS WINNER in MYSTERY The life of a poor merchant's daughter in Victorian Era London is quite boring. Charlotte Porter, it seems, is the exception. Desperate for a source of income once her father's gambling debts have drained their funds and placed them in the sights of some of London's most notorious criminals, Charlotte is in search of salvation. It comes in the form of handsome detective Alexander Langley, a curious gentleman with a strange connection to Scotland Yard and an even stranger connection to the American West. Charlotte soon finds herself swept into his world of investigation and intrigue. When a case of art theft turns into murder and she and Alexander are thrown into the seedy underbelly of the London elite, Charlotte realizes that the work isn't the only thing she's become attached to. But now, her father's powerful creditors are ready to close the books on them, and Charlotte must find a way to keep them out of the red because this time it won't be written in ink. Book 1 of the Langley & Porter Series *Featured on: The Wattpad Stars For Fans of Bridgerton List Wattpad's Strong Female Leads List @HistoricalFiction 's The Gothic List EDITOR'S PICK April 2021 Content warning: This story contains violence. **This is only the first five chapters. The rest of the book is available on Amazon for purchase and via KU.**

The story follows the main character Elizabeth Bennet as she deals with issues of manners, upbringing, morality, education, and marriage in the society of the landed gentry of early 19th-century England. Elizabeth is the second of five daughters of a country gentleman living near the fictional town of Meryton in Hertfordshire, near London.

All small towns have their quirks. The town of Nowhere, for example, has an overabundance of ghosts. Wyatt Best has lost his money, his father, and his last sweater vest. He is only sad about losing one of those things. When he's sent to live with his estranged uncle in Nowhere, Wyatt is immediately fascinated by its magic. He then meets the Penny family. The three Penny sisters, who were each born on the same day exactly a year apart, have the ability to commune with the ghosts in Nowhere and act as a bridge between the land of the living and that of the dead. Just as Wyatt begins to adjust to his new life in this strange town, a forest appears. And the ghosts it has trapped inside have secrets to tell.