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Title details for Portrait of Peril by Laura Joh Rowland - Available

Portrait of Peril

#5 in series

by Laura Joh Rowland
Alex Tregear
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
London, October 1890. Crime-scene photographer Sarah Bain is overjoyed to marry her beloved Detective Sergeant Barrett—but the wedding takes a sinister turn when the body of a stabbing victim is discovered in the crypt of the church. Not every newlywed couple begins their marriage with a murder investigation, but Sarah and Barrett, along with their friends Lord Hugh Staunton and Mick O'Reilly, take the case. The dead man is Charles Firth, whose profession is "spirit photography," photographing the ghosts of the deceased. When Sarah develops the photographs he took in the church, she discovers one with a pale, blurred figure attacking the victim. The city's spiritualist community believes the church is haunted and the figure is a ghost. But Sarah is a skeptic, and she and her friends soon learn that the victim had plenty of enemies in the human world—including a scientist who studies supernatural phenomena, his psychic daughter, and an heiress on a campaign to debunk spiritualism and expose fraudulent mediums. In the tunnels beneath a demolished jail, a ghost-hunting expedition ends with a new murder and new suspects. While Sarah searches for the truth about both crimes, she travels a dark, twisted path into her own family's sordid history. Her long lost father is the prime suspect in a cold-case murder, and her reunion with him proves that even the most determined skeptic can be haunted by ghosts from the past.

  • Creators

  • Series

    A Victorian Mystery

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 12, 2021

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781666546088
      • File size: 354264 KB
      • Duration: 12:18:02

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 12, 2020
      Rowland’s well-crafted fifth Victorian mystery (after 2020’s The Woman in the Veil) finds London newspaper crime photographer Sarah Bain and her fiancé, Det. Sgt. Thomas Barrett, about to get married—but are they prepared to confront the concept of what it means to be “man and wife” in the full Victorian sense of the term? Family and social tensions boil over at the wedding breakfast, but more distressing is the body of a ghost hunter that’s uncovered in the church’s crypt just as the groom kisses the bride. Not every woman could photograph a crime scene in her bridal dress, but Sarah doesn’t flinch, and she soon becomes involved in an intriguing mystery involving spiritualist frauds, debunkers, and believers. The literal meaning of her marriage vows adds a new level of complexity to Sarah’s headstrong nature, which can lead her into needless danger and sometimes even damages her investigation. As always, Rowland blends acute psychological observation and meticulous historical research to explore the conflicts faced by an independent woman in Victorian society. Readers will hope Sarah has a long career. Agent: Pam Ahearn, Pam Ahearn Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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