Character Showcase: The Deverell and Miss Greenwood

 (Or the Tortoise and the Hare!)

Detective Inspector Ptolemy Deverell and Miss Lucy Greenwood -- owner of Bespoke Temptations Bakery and Very Proper Tea room, in York-- have known each other now for a year. They have spent that time becoming slowly better acquainted and events have now progressed to the point where local folk think they must be engaged. If they’re not, they ought to be.

Lucy has known, for some time now, that Tolly is the only man for her, but he tends to enjoy teasing her and suggesting that he’s only after her cakes. It’s been six months since he used the word “love” in reference to her and he’s such a cautious fellow that she fears she’s frightened him off with her bossiness and her new bicycling bloomers. Well, it’s partly his fault since he bought her the bicycle in the first place!

The man really doesn’t seem to know what he wants. Sometimes, when he looks at her, she thinks he only sees a Victoria sponge!

 Tolly Deverell is a cautious man. He is eight years Lucy’s senior and, in his eyes, she is often too reckless and “devil-may-care”. He knows he moves too slowly for her, but he wants to cross all his ‘T’s and dot all his ‘I’s.  After all, he was married before, briefly. Six years ago it ended in tragedy, when his wife threw herself from a bridge and drowned in the river Thames. Although the coroner’s inquest at the time decided it was suicide, Tolly never agreed with that verdict. It’s a matter that has haunted him ever since and he knows he cannot move forward with his own life until he’s resolved the questions about his first wife’s death; until he’s put her spirit to rest and knows that it was nothing he did that sent her to the river that day.

He wants to be sure that he’s doing the right thing this time – for Lucy’s sake more than his own.

Can Lucy find a way to stop shocking the poor fellow and let his eyebrows relax from their sadly quizzical dance? Being a modern woman she would propose to him herself, if she could be more certain of how he felt about her. But she made the mistake, once before, of misreading the fellow and pushing herself forward rather improperly. Not long after they met— and disdaining the rules of gift-giving between unwed people of the opposite gender— she bought him a warm, new coat, thinking he needed it to replace the shabby old thing he wore every day. Now he keeps that new coat for special occasions only, still preferring the comfort of the familiar, no matter how ragged it gets, and Lucy fears he might think she meant to change him, or to rush him into a more intimate relationship before he was prepared. Or before he even thought her anything other than an annoying, revolutionary female. 

She must not overstep the boundaries again, for he is likely to bolt if he feels himself being cornered. She knows that people are talking about them and this too heightens her anxieties in regard to their friendship. Lucy wants the fine beast that is Tolly Deverell to come to her by his own choice and stay at her side; not because he feels it is expected, or his duty; not to save her reputation or try to 'fix her', but because he is ready to love and trust her with his shy, guarded heart.

Can she convince Tolly that she doesn’t want to change him; that she welcomes the steadiness he brings to her life, and that she is not out to cause him trouble? Can she prove to the Detective that she intends to be a companion and a loving wife, not just an ambitious “new woman”, running her own business, and that she can make a success of both? That she will wait for him, no matter how long it takes, because she's not going anywhere with any other man?

Will Tolly finally succeed in finding out what really happened to his first wife, even as he embarks upon a tangle of mysteries – both new and old – and tries to unravel their twisted threads. He’s a man on a mission. Several missions, in fact. At the end of it all, will he finally get the reward he deserves, or will Miss Lucy Greenwood drown him in a large vat of hot, raspberry jam?

Find out what happens next to Lucy and Tolly in A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT (A Bespoke Novel III) coming March 5^th and now available for pre-order.

**

This week I will be sharing a few more tidbits from the new release, so keep an eye open for more teasers on this blog!

Thank you for reading!

(Images: cover art courtesy of Twisted E-publishing, of course; author's own recent photos of very old York streets; and The Wedding Morning by John Henry Frederick Bacon c. 1892)

Character Showcase - Alma Clemmons

People have a habit of disappearing around Alma Clemmons.

 In a DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT, one elderly lady— the mistress of Furthermore— is about to breathe her last. She’s been clinging on for a long time, not because she enjoys life, but because she’s resentful of the fact that her grandson will inherit everything and he has been such a great disappointment. In fact, she’s resentful and bitter about most things, and finds her only enjoyment in making people miserable.

Alma Clemmons must be well aware of the fact that nobody will mourn her passing, but, on the other hand, she does not intend to go too far. If she gets her way (and she usually does) Alma will remain to haunt everybody who dares enter her house, long after she’s passed from this world.

She’s lived in the house they call Furthermore for many years. When her father died, he left the property to Alma, as his only child. But because of the laws of the time, once she married, the house and farm became her husband’s property. When he died, the property then became her son’s, but there was a provision in the will that made certain it could not be sold until Alma died.

For this reason, her grandson, Constant, has eagerly awaited Alma’s death for years. Once she’s gone, he wants to sell the house and take his fortune off to London. Whitherward Fell and the nearest city of York are far too provincial for Constant Clemmons and he has always had tastes beyond his means, so getting his hands, at last, on Alma’s fortune, as well as the property, will finally let him lead the life he’s always wanted.

To say that Alma is not well-liked, is quite an understatement. But she wouldn’t have it any other way. She is a stern, miserly, dictatorial woman, who believes in living a spartan life and the importance of “suffering”. She thinks of herself as “pious” and “god-fearing”, but she has her own interpretation of what those words mean. In the words of one character,

 “It is people like Alma, Detective, who give religion a bad name.”

Alma has always been strong-willed. She would never have married at all if her father had not warned her before he died, “A woman alone in the world, and one left with a considerable portion— as will you be, my dear— becomes subject to unsavory attentions. Better you find a man that you can live with tolerably, than give them all a chance to swarm about when I am gone. Make a marriage on your terms, to avoid the bother of fortune hunters and charlatans.”

Alma, mindful of this advice, had watched Augustus Clemmons handling a bull, heard him bartering a brisk sale on some piglets, and decided he would do adequately for her purposes. So she approached him with an offer and he had not dared refuse. As long as he stayed mostly outdoors and she inside, they had a peaceful, proficient and profitable marriage partnership. She fed him, cleaned his clothes, cut his hair and toenails, and pulled the occasional sore tooth for him. In return he worked the farm. She never felt endangered by any such thing as his intelligence, which was focused on animal breeding and crop harvests, but did not reach beyond that. He never challenged her orders; never had the gall to suggest she lacked judgment or the ability to manage their lives perfectly well. He let her make all the decisions about the house. As her father had urged, she made a marriage on her terms and chose a simple man.

Sadly, Augustus left her with a son, who grew up one day to turn against Alma in favor of a witch. The less said about that the better.

Well, she had seen them all off eventually. At ninety-four, she remains in the house called Furthermore. Nobody is going to chase her away.

“She will stay until the Good Lord takes her,” the vicar remarks to the doctor one afternoon, when their visits overlap.

To which the doctor replies, “Good luck to Him for trying.”

“Mrs. Clemmons is a great age.”

“Yes. Almost a bloody century. But she won’t go before she’s ready. Ever seen anybody attempt to bathe a cat, Mr. Grisdale?”

So, for now, Alma remains in her house, clinging angrily to life, with the windows shut and the thick, stale air indoors rarely disturbed. And with her nightmares full of screaming ghosts.

Here, in this house there is something that reeks of evil.

Some say it’s Alma herself.

It has been said that the only thing feared by the Beast of Whitherward Fell is Alma Clemmons. People do have a habit of disappearing around her.         

Perhaps, when she’s finally gone, all hell will truly break loose.

 **

Read more about Alma and the Beast of Whitherward Fell in A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT. Available now for pre-order.

(Image: Portrait of a woman by Thomas Eakins c. 1804-1900)

Character Showcase - Josefina Dallet

 In A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT, Detective Inspector Deverell – living and working in 1894 Yorkshire --is haunted by a murder that happened eighty-two years prior. In a house known as Furthermore, on a wild, windblown place called Whitherward Fell, the Thorley family were murdered by meat cleaver. It is a crime for which the young maidservant “Josefina” was tried and hanged, but there is a gentleman who firmly believes she was innocent and, all these years later, he is out to find justice for Josefina.

A newspaper account of the old case, has brought all this to Deverell’s attention and it won’t let him rest now, until he has proven, to his own satisfaction, who committed the crime. He joins Mr. Alaric Jacoby’s crusade to uncover the truth of what happened to the Thorleys and, if possible, to clear Josefina’s name.

It won’t be easy. After eighty-two years, many of those who were alive at the time of the trial are dead and others do not like to talk of the gruesome tragedy.

Josefina was an orphaned waif taken in off the streets by William Jacoby when she was approximately eight years of age. Her provenance before that was never known, but she was a bright and cheerful child, who quickly become a favorite of Mr. Jacoby’s. He taught her English and she trained as a maid in his house, but she was as much of a daughter to him as his own children. When she was old enough, he gave her a good job in his mill. But he always saw in Josefina something special; something that suggested she was destined for greater things. In his diaries he wrote of his ward,

 

Josefina Dallet is a girl who looks at the world and people in it as an amusing diversion. She is inquisitive, and in her quest for knowledge she sometimes forgets her own safety, or her manners. Or to wear her shoes. When reprimanded in anger, she is more curious about the chemical reaction that causes the scolder’s face to flush scarlet, than she is in her apology and contrition. But there is no intentional harm in her. It seems I am the only one who sees this.

As much as she studies the world with her bright eyes, she has yet to learn that not all have good, straightforward and honest motives. Since she speaks exactly as she sees, the contrivances, cunning and darker side of humanity are utterly unknown to her.

 Although a clever girl who could learn quickly anything she was taught, Josefina also had a tendency to do “Silly things like keep climbing a tree to jump out, over and over again, convinced she might take flight if she tried often enough. She would wander in the garden during a thunderstorm, daring the lightning to strike her, or touch something that she’d been warned was hot and likely to burn, just because she wanted to see for herself.”

And she would only learn if the subject and the teacher had caught her imagination.

In many ways, she was a girl who lived in her own world.

William Jacoby was a kind and generous man, always looking to help those in need. So when he sent Josefina to work as a temporary maid for the Thorleys on Whitherward Fell, his intention was to show the young woman more of the world; to let her enjoy the fresh air of the countryside away from the mill and the town life. He thought it would expand her horizons and be a good experience to build her confidence. He knew she was very gentle and loving with children for she had a child-like curiosity and zest for life herself, so he believed she would be a great help to Mrs. Thorley – a tired, sickly woman with eight children and a demanding husband.

On Whitherward Fell, Josefina liked to sing to the Thorley children, accompanied by a music box that William Jacoby once gave to her. She was described by those who knew her as a “Sunny girl. Always light-hearted, never cross.” She had an ability to see only the good in people and the beauty in life. If somebody was sarcastic or deliberately unkind it generally went over her head because she did not understand anything that was not simply honest and straight-forward. As William Jacoby wrote of her:

She lacks an ability to read the intentions of others, or comprehend the mood of the crowd, but she is not an imbecile.

 Unfortunately, William’s good intentions ended tragically for everybody involved and he never forgave himself for what happened next. The last forty years of his life were spent fretting over what he might have done differently and trying to clear Josefina’s name. In his diaries he wrote it all down – all his own theories about the crime, and his unwavering belief in Josefina’s innocence. Before he died, he passed everything into the hands of his ten-year-old grandson Alaric, certain that, one day, somebody would come along to help investigate.

Now, forty years after William’s death, his grandson has put the story back in the newspaper and it has fallen into the capable hands of Tolly Deverell.

Can the wrongful conviction of Josefina Dallet be proved at last, or will the Detective uncover a truth more startling than anything anybody could have expected?

 Find out in A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT (A Bespoke novel III), coming March 5th, 2021! Available now for pre-order

(Image: Portrait of a Young Woman, artist unknown. Swiss c. 1800)

A Bespoke Price for the most Discerning Readers!

Later this week I will have more character showcases to share with you from the upcoming release in this series, but today I have news in celebration of two things: the promise of spring and the imminent arrival of A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT (A Bespoke Novel III)! 

You can now obtain a copy of BESPOKE (Book I) at a very special price! So if you haven't had the chance yet to meet Lucy Greenwood and Detective Inspector Ptolemy Deverell, here is your opportunity.

* * *

He's been sent from Scotland Yard to solve a case of blackmail in the Yorkshire Dales; she's just opened her own business in York baking bespoke cakes. He wants a peaceful life; she's aiming for revolution. He likes to keep both feet on the ground; she dreams of scandalizing the neighborhood on a bicycle. He prefers to fade in with the wallpaper; she's proud to be a black sheep that stands out in the crowd.

He's never getting married again—most women ought to be stamped on the forehead with a danger warning and clapped into handcuffs. She thinks men are simply an obstacle to her ambitions and if it's true that the way to a man's heart is through his digestive system, that explains why a great deal of gaseous waste frequently finds its path out of the wrong end.

The two of them might appear to be mismatched flavors in an unlikely recipe, but when blackmail turns to murder, it's the start of a remarkable partnership in crime-solving. And a match made in chocolate.

It's late Victorian England and the world may be on the cusp of change, but is it quite ready for this pairing? They're not even prepared for it themselves. Nevertheless, some wayward kind of chemistry keeps drawing them together and it can't be blamed entirely on the cake.

Or the corpse in the conservatory.

* * *

Will this odd couple find a way to live with their differences and can wedding bells possibly be heard in their future? Along the way, their strange romance will have to compete with many mysteries, a few gruesome murders and much mayhem. But maybe they wouldn't have it any other way, for the enjoyment and satisfaction in solving a tangled riddle is one thing they do have in common.

Also available:

A LOVELINESS OF LADYBIRDS (A Bespoke Novel, part II).

The continuing adventures of Lucy Greenwood, baker and creator extraordinaire, and Detective Inspector Deverell.

Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home…

Ten years ago, at ‘The Brindle Horse’ Hotel, Amarinda Siddaway ran barefoot out of the fog, with a bloody knife in her hand and a children’s rhyme on her lips. Tangled with rumors of lurid scandal, an illicit love affair with a young man a dozen years her junior, and a missing corpse, the mystery of Mrs. Siddaway seemed destined never to be solved. Tried for murder and acquitted, the scarlet woman disappeared from the world just as thoroughly as her alleged victim.

But was she truly innocent, or did she get away with murder?

Now, a decade later, a very similar crime has been committed, once again at the same hotel. Can it be nothing more than simple coincidence that several characters involved in the first incident are present at the scene of the second? Another woman with a bloody weapon in her hand; another nursery rhyme, and another missing dead man.

Some folk might think that old ghosts are to blame. Or is it the ladybirds again?

A spinning weathervane on a boathouse roof points in turn to all four directions of the compass. And four letters, sealed with red wax, stamped with the image of a ladybird, are out in the world, linking both crimes with a curious, winding chain.

And there is only one man with the patience and wisdom to unwind it. Only one man can connect the clues and stop that weathervane spinning.

Detective Inspector Deverell is not fond of coincidences or the supernatural. But whatever is going on at ‘The Brindle Horse’, he’ll get to the bottom of it. Fortunately, he has the eager amateur sleuth and creator of remarkable cakes, Miss Lucy Greenwood, to help him out.

* * *

AND COMING SOON:

A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT (A Bespoke Novel, part III).

How do you take your tea?

 The Beast of Whitherward Fell has been blamed for a great many mysterious events and gruesome murders on that wildest, perilous stretch of the Yorkshire Moors. But what, or who, is the real monster? And can there be only one that has stalked this place since the beginning of time?

 Detective Inspector Ptolemy Deverell does not believe in mythical beasts or supernatural phenomena. He’s a quiet, unassuming, pragmatic fellow, who seldom falls prey to emotion. Nobody pulls the fleece over his eyes. So if anybody can shed light on the rampaging fiend behind the bloody history of this place, surely, he can.

 But when the detective embarks upon three cases at once, he has no idea how tightly they are entwined, or that this tangle will lead him into the darkest part of Whitherward Fell. To face the Beast head-on.

 With a lady in search of vengeance; a gentleman on a mission for truth, and a little girl waiting for justice, the detective already has his hands full. On top of everything, he— the most unromantic fellow in the world—is in love. Will he ever get around to proposing marriage to the very modern, bicycle-riding, baker-extraordinaire, Miss Lucy Greenwood? And, if he does, will she laugh in his face and try drowning him in raspberry jam?

 Not only that. A ghost from his own past has returned to haunt his nightmares, and he cannot get on with his life until she’s finally at rest.

 Tolly Deverell might not believe in the Beast of Whitherward Fell, but he is preyed upon by a scavenging creature that lurks in the bleakest shadows of a dream, waiting to tear him apart. The great shadow of its wingspan falls from above when he is most susceptible.

It comes to him when he’s alone in the dark.

It comes to him when all but his mind is quiet.

It comes in the deadliest shades of night.

 And with words clawed into the wall, it asks,

 How do you take your tea?

(Image: Old Woman Pouring Tea. 19th century. Artist unknown)

AMAZON UK

AMAZON US

AMAZON CANADA

AMAZON AUS.

AMAZON BRAZIL

AMAZON GERMANY

AMAZON FRANCE

AMAZON ITALY

AMAZON SPAIN

AMAZON INDIA

Character Showcase - The Watchmaker, the Brothers Glede, and Vetus Amicus

 The Glede brothers run a small, extremely cluttered shop called “Vetus Amicus”. They somewhat optimistically refer to this establishment as an antique and repair shop, but the locals consider it more of a junk or pawn shop.

Archie, the elder brother, was born with what he calls “crooked bones”, which have only continued to become more twisted over time. Consequently, he does not get out of the shop much these days, but in addition to managing the premises and repairing old, broken and discarded items, he was once hired to make death masks. A macabre business, some might say, but he always rather enjoyed a good deathwatch vigil and has attended so many of the dead and dying— bringing with him the rolled-up plaster bandages and a big pot of goose fat in an innocent-looking doctor’s bag— that this line of work is, in fact, the source of his curious nickname.

“Send for The Watchmaker,” sounds less morbid, even relatively benign, to those who, in their final moments, might overhear the whispered summons.  

His masks, made soon after death, were responsible for recording a moment in time, be it by the bedside of a beloved family patriarch; by the cradle of a cherished child, or by the scaffold at the execution of a condemned prisoner. Occasionally, his services were required to make a mask of some poor soul’s last grimace as they lay upon a mortuary slab— an anonymous murder victim that the authorities hope might one day be identified.

Archie keeps copies of his favorite masks, displayed on the walls around his workroom as souvenirs. These days, of course, the commemorative death mask has gone somewhat out of fashion, but he is occasionally sent for still, although his increased lack of mobility makes him less swift than he once was in answering the summons.

It is now thirty years since their father died, leaving Archie “The Watchmaker” and his younger brother Fred to manage the little shop in this narrow alley, and to look after each other. Which they do, in their own way and to their best of their abilities. Archie likes to think he is the brains of the operation, while Fred is the brawn, or the charm— whichever is required. In their family there was only enough money to send one son to school, so the physically stronger of the two lads stayed at home to help with the heavy work, while the smaller, weaker boy was sent away for an education.

If Fred resents this fact, he never shows it. In fact, he has no respect for “book learnin’” and considers a man’s experiences and his natural wits to be of greater importance.

Fred has no appreciation for antiques, or for the satisfaction his elder brother finds in delicate, time-consuming restoration work. Fred thinks only of how to make money and the quicker the better. To that end there was always some scheme afoot and it is seldom on the right side of the law. Fred is never one to miss an opportunity and, as their father would have said, he can convince a tiger to wear spots.

An old tin pot, in Fred’s hands, is a newly unearthed treasure that he could sell to the gullible for five pounds. But he always knows his customer; knows how to make himself appealing. Whatever works best on that particular punter.

Of course, in their line of trade, the Glede brothers know everybody’s secrets, particularly their financial problems. They know who is flush with money to spend and who is near destitute, selling the family treasures or pawning their jewels to pay gambling debts. They know who is looking for special cadeaux for a new lover— or lovers— and who is eager to part with a former paramour’s tokens of affection. And in such secrets, there is opportunity and money to be made.

But unlike Archie, Fred cannot be entirely content with the little bits and pieces that come their way through the shop door. Every so often he spreads his wings and heads off, intent on finding bigger and better things, but he always comes home again in the end, to the shop and to Archie. There, he keeps his head down for a while, as if he’s been up to no good. Archie doesn’t ask. The best way to handle Fred is never to ask questions.

Lately, however, Fred seems to be in a good mood. He’s even taking a sweetheart out to the music hall on her evenings off. More than one sweetheart actually, Archie suspects.

So life among the ruins of “Vetus Amicus” has been peaceful of late. Archie hopes it will stay that way. But there is something in the air— a sense of foreboding that the elder brother cannot seem to shake off.

As he works in the shop late at night, he catches a shadow in the corner of his eye, and watches it run about the piles of old pots, toys and books. He has told himself that it must be a mouse that keeps tipping things over in the dark and making a long-buried music box suddenly play a few notes of its tune.

After all, some of those items must have been there since his father’s time, or even earlier. Archie has lived in the dust and the gloom for many years, looking after all these lost “treasures” and talking to the faded china and porcelain ladies whose faces he refreshes with his delicate paintbrush.

Perhaps he’s been talking to inanimate objects in the dark for too long and now he’s seeing ghosts. He really ought to have a clear out, clean the grime off those windows and let the light in.

But if he does, who knows what he might find?

 

Take a journey through the Glede brothers' trove of secrets in A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT (A Bespoke Novel iii) COMING SOON.

(Image: Give us a Taste by John George Brown 1831-1913)

Character Showcase - Mr. Alaric Jacoby

 In A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT, Mr. Alaric Jacoby is a wealthy mill-owner from Harrogate. Although he’s a widower, he lives with a house full of nieces and nephews. This being the case, it might seem impossible that he leads a lonely existence; sadly, however, the residents of his house are all waiting for their share of the inheritance when he breathes his last. And he is fully aware of their impatience, as well as their concern with the way he spends his own money and the manner in which he runs his mill.

Jacoby takes pride in looking after his workers and their families, believing that happy, safe, well cared for employees make for a more efficient business. His safety precautions and the high standards he insists upon are the sort of thing that his nephews consider a waste of coin. Interested only in profit, they cannot wait to take over the reins. Jacoby knows that when he’s gone, they will undo all the good he has tried to achieve. Alas, he’s a large man who enjoys rich food and strong drink, and he's been warned that his heart could give out at any time.

But rather than dwell on this problem, he throws himself instead into an old mystery that once plagued his grandfather, William Jacoby— the founder of the mill and a good man, who believed in honesty and justice.

William had spent the last forty years of his life trying to prove the innocence of a young maid accused and convicted of murdering an entire family on Whitherward Fell. The maid, Josefina Dallet, was an orphaned girl William once took under his wing, so he felt responsible for her and never believed her guilt. Even after her execution, he continued the struggle to clear her name. Unfortunately, he never succeeded. Upon his death, he passed his diaries and his fight for Josefina’s exoneration into the hands of his grandson who, at the time, was only ten.

Now in his late forties, warned that he might not have long to live, Alaric Jacoby is determined to take up the gauntlet and prove that his grandfather was right. He pays to put the story back in the newspaper, hoping to dig up old memories.

Will he also dig up some old skeletons? Or some new corpses?

When the story falls into the hands of Detective Inspector Deverell, it stirs up more than the dust on an eighty-year-old murder case.

There are rumblings heard on Whitherward Fell, as the Beast, prodded awake, yawns, turns over, and stretches its claws.

And a music box, long silenced, begins to play again.

 

Find out more about Alaric Jacoby and his mission for justice in A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT. Coming soon!

(Image: Dr. Horatio Wood by Thomas Eakins 1886)

Character Showcase - Lady Carew

 The infamously scandalous divorcee known as Lady Carew has been away from England for at least a decade, so her return is causing quite a stir. Even the lady herself isn’t sure why she came back.

It all began with a lost shoe-- one of a very good pair -- and a strange, haunting dream. Although she’s been susceptible to the odd premonition all her life, this one was especially peculiar, gruesome and seemingly out of the blue. The effect is powerful enough to lure her back to England after all these years; to Yorkshire and to Whitherward Fell, where she was born in the house called Furthermore. She never thought she’d return to this wretched place of her miserable childhood, but here she is, with several mysteries for Detective Inspector Deverell to solve.

Firstly, what, exactly, is living in the cupboard under the stairs?

Lady Carew likes to tell stories and her imagination is so vivid that sometimes she loses the boundary of what’s real and what isn’t. So how much of what she tells him about her past can the detective believe? How much does the lady herself believe? She claims to have dreamed of a murder, as if she saw it with her own eyes, although she was several thousand miles away from where it happened at the time.

Secondly, Lady Carew wants to know who her mother was – not only what happened to her, but where she came from – for nobody ever knew her name.

 “She’d heard folk whispering of how, four years before she was born, a woman was found on Whitherward Fell, sat beside a rowan tree, reading a volume of Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language. The fact that she was fully and respectably dressed, clean and well-spoken, was not as much grist to the rumor-mill as her claim to remember nothing of where she had been before that day, who she was, or how she got there. She had with her only a small trunk of belongings, which included a music box, a mirror, a few pieces of jewelry and her dictionary…”

 With such a mysterious provenance, it is, perhaps, no surprise that the woman now called Lady Carew has not led a conventional existence. Instead she has been drawn to life outside society's rules, going very much her own way. She might be considered an outcast and a scarlet woman, but having got this far, she swears she will go down with a roar and fighting like a tiger. And she won't go to her  grave with any regrets.

 “Wherever she went, folk called her The Mad Englishwoman. To them she was a wild creature who enjoyed swimming in the sea in rough weather, without using the discretion of a bathing machine, and where there was no lifeguard on duty. In truth, although she enjoyed cultivating the image, if all her days and nights were really conducted so recklessly, she would never have survived to be—

The age of a fine, full-bodied and fruity vintage, thank you very much.”

 The lady has her secrets and her sins-- and she enjoys every one of them-- but she’s come back to Whitherward Fell looking for answers to a great many questions.

And for a few little things, such as vengeance and justice.

Oh, and to find out who the devil she really is.

Will she get her answers with Detective Inspector Deverell's help?

Be thee warned: A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT is coming soon!

 *

 (Image: Portrait of a young lady with long dark hair, by William Breakspeare 1855-1914)

 

Character Showcase -- Cuthbert Hotchkiss

 In A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT, Cuthbert Hotchkiss is an unhelpful solicitor with more interest in his dinner than in upholding the law. His grandfather was a founding partner in the York firm of Cumberbatch, Hotchkiss and Clapper, and his father continued the tradition. But the old man is now “not in his right mind” and Cuthbert the younger has stepped into his shoes, his office, and acquired all his old clients.

And quite a few of his father’s old problems too.

When Detective Inspector Deverell comes asking questions about Mrs. Alma Clemmons, one of his recently deceased clients, Cuthbert is evasive – when he isn’t being obstructive, that is. Things get even stickier when Alma’s grandson goes missing and her scandalous granddaughter, who they all thought was dead, returns to stir up trouble.

Does Cuthbert Hotchkiss know what happened to Alma’s missing maid, or to her grandson?

What secrets does the solicitor hold about the house called Furthermore and the folk who have lived in it for the past eighty years, or more?

Hotchkiss is described as grey and befuddled. Half the buttons of the fellow’s waistcoat are missing and the other half hanging by a thread. It is anybody’s guess when he last brushed the wisps of hair that meander about his shiny pate and there are buttery crumbs upon his cheek, as if he’s been interrupted mid-luncheon and only just removed the napkin from his collar.    

But is his appearance merely an act that conceals a cunning mind and deadly intentions? Or is he really just waiting for his next meal?

Three generations of Hotchkiss men have now served Alma Clemmons and her family. Rumor has it that they know where all the skeletons are buried.

But the thing about old bones is that they can be dug up at any time. And some of them, as Hotchkiss will learn, come back to life with a vengeance.

Uncover the secrets and the bones in A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT (A Bespoke Novel iii).

(Image: An Appetising Dish by Edwin Thomas Roberts 1898)

Character Showcase -- Miss Fanny Boole

 In A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT, Fanny Boole arrives at a house called Furthermore, on the edge of Whitherward Fell, to live as housekeeper and caretaker for a bedridden old woman. She hopes this will be her fresh start – a new beginning in this “out of the way” place, where nobody knows her, or anything about the mistakes of her past.

But Fanny has no idea what she’s let herself in for.

Before she arrived there, she thought that “Furthermore” sounded like a fairytale place where princesses slept. Alas, it’s not long before Fanny begins to realize that there’s something very wrong about the house and everything that happens there.

Although she is hired as the only servant in the house, it’s not the workload that troubles her, but the eerie, weeping walls and the howling winds at night. Not to mention the unearthly screams of the ancient mistress of the house, as she dreams of the past and imagines a green-eyed monster trying to get at her.

“Mother,” the old lady shouts into the dark, “What have you done?”

There’s more too. The man who hired her to tend his grandmother, did so without informing the old lady, who still thinks that the new housekeeper is “Polly”, the previous maid – a young woman who vanished suddenly one day and hasn’t been seen or heard from since.

And Old Pip, the gardener who never comes indoors, stands out in all weathers, singing "Polly put the kettle on". It's the only thing he does say. He doesn't talk to Fanny at all.

There are days when she'd just like to leave, but curiosity holds her back, because there are clues she's begun to find around the house and she thinks they might have something to do with the previous maid's disappearance.

A scrap of blood-stained linen caught on a doorframe; a long hair with a tiny piece of scalp attached, trapped in some cracked glass; a broken piece of laudanum bottle, and a sinister mark on the wallpaper.

Then there is that foul odor, which seems to grow stronger when she stands at the bottom of the stairs… 

The blowflies-- ever present in the house -- are humming now, inside her head. She doesn’t know how much longer she’ll be able to stand it. Will the house drive her out, as it must have done to Polly, the previous maid? Or will she find a way to stand up for herself and fight back against the creeping evil that now comes for her too?

Fanny may be spinster in her forties; described as plain, shy, awkward and unsophisticated, but she’s a butcher’s daughter with a strong stomach, and a few dark secrets of her own. She might not know any big words or complicated mathematical sums, or anything much about the world beyond Yorkshire, but she knows when a storm is brewing and it's time to bring the washing in. She knows good from bad.

As her father liked to say, “Our girl she can wring a bird’s neck and have it plucked and stuffed before you’ve got your coat on. Something to remember, eh? She’s a butcher’s daughter, so think on! Mind you don’t get on her bad side.”

But Fanny might find herself in deadly danger, unless she gets away from that house before its too late. Before whatever it is that waits in the cupboard under the stairs breaks free.

 * 

You can find out more about Fanny and her fate in A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT (A Bespoke novel iii) COMING SOON

(Image: The Maidservant by William Arthur Breakspeare 1855-1914 )

COMING on March 5th!

 Yay! Good news at last!

The arrival of A DEADY SHADE OF NIGHT - (A Bespoke Novel iii) is imminent! Thank you all for your patience in waiting so long. I expect a release date very soon. 

A DEADLY SHADE OF NIGHT

How do you take your tea?

 The Beast of Whitherward Fell has been blamed for a great many mysterious events and gruesome murders on that wildest, perilous stretch of the Yorkshire Moors. But what, or who, is the real monster? And can there be only one that has stalked this place since the beginning of time?

 Detective Inspector Ptolemy Deverell does not believe in mythical beasts or supernatural phenomena. He’s a quiet, unassuming, pragmatic fellow, who seldom falls prey to emotion. Nobody pulls the fleece over his eyes. So if anybody can shed light on the rampaging fiend behind the bloody history of this place, surely, he can.

 But when the detective embarks upon three cases at once, he has no idea how tightly they are entwined, or that this tangle will lead him into the darkest part of Whitherward Fell. To face the Beast head-on.

 With a lady in search of vengeance; a gentleman on a mission for truth, and a little girl waiting for justice, the detective already has his hands full. On top of everything, he— the most unromantic fellow in the world—is in love. Will he ever get around to proposing marriage to the very modern, bicycle-riding, baker-extraordinaire, Miss Lucy Greenwood? And, if he does, will she laugh in his face and try drowning him in raspberry jam?

 Not only that. A ghost from his own past has returned to haunt his nightmares, and he cannot get on with his life until she’s finally at rest.

 Tolly Deverell might not believe in the Beast of Whitherward Fell, but he is preyed upon by a scavenging creature that lurks in the bleakest shadows of a dream, waiting to tear him apart. The great shadow of its wingspan falls from above when he is most susceptible.

It comes to him when he’s alone in the dark.

It comes to him when all but his mind is quiet.

It comes in the deadliest shades of night.

 And with words clawed into the wall, it asks,

 How do you take your tea?

Tea by George Dunlop Leslie c. 1894