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Penny Richards

Solving crimes is not a dress rehearsal.

Chicago, 1881. The idea of a female detective is virtually unheard of. But when famed crime buster Allan Pinkerton opens his agency’s doors to a handful of women, one intrepid actress with her own troubled past is driven to defy convention and take on a new and dangerous role.

Since the age of eleven, when her mother was murdered, the life of the theater is all Lilly Long has known. Now twenty-two, she has blossomed into an accomplished Shakespearean actress. But after her innocence—and her savings—are taken from her by a seductive scoundrel, Lilly vows to leave the stage, enter the real world, and save others from a similar fate. Following in the footsteps of the country’s first female detective, Lilly persuades Allan Pinkerton to take her on.

Lilly’s acting skills are a perfect fit for her real-life role as a Pinkerton operative. But her first case is a baptism by fire as she is sent to the small town of Vandalia to solve the mystery of a pastor who disappeared with his family—and the church’s funds. When Lilly arrives, she finds the mere mention of the reverend’s name provokes enmity or suspicious silence. Shadowed by a second Pinkerton agent with an agenda of his own, Lilly begins to uncover Vandalia’s sordid secrets. But she’ll have to deliver the performance of a lifetime to survive the final act of this drama.

Christine Williams

Blackstone Publishing

The Lilly Long Mysteries

An Untimely Frost

Shakespearean actress turned Pinkerton detective Lilly Long and her reluctant partner, Cade McShane, travel to New Orleans to save a young widow from a fate worse than death

1881, Chicago. Assigned to her second case as a Pinkerton, Lilly still needs to prove herself—both as a detective and as a woman in a man’s world. Ordered to again work with Lilly, Cade needs to redeem himself for conduct unbecoming to a Pinkerton—a grief-driven drunken brawl. As if their forced partnership wasn’t bad enough, the agents must pose as husband and wife servants in the troubled household of a wealthy New Orleans family. An acting challenge if ever there was one.

The elderly matriarch of the Fontenot family is convinced her grandson’s former widow has been unjustly committed to an insane asylum by her new husband. She believes the man is attempting to steal the family fortune. Soon, in the beautiful Fontenot mansion, the detectives uncover secrets, betrayal, voodoo curses, and murder. Even as Lilly and Cade chafe against their roles, they must work together to find the villain before the hapless widow faces her final curtain call.

Though This Be Madness