Lynn Shepherd

"Nobody, I believe, has ever found it possible to like the heroine of Mansfield Park." --Lionel Trilling In this ingenious new twist on Mansfield Park, the famously meek Fanny Price--whom Jane Austen's own mother called "insipid"--has been utterly transformed; she is now a rich heiress who is spoiled, condescending, and generally hated throughout the county. Mary Crawford, on the other hand, is now as good as Fanny is bad, and suffers great indignities at the hands of her vindictive neighbor. It's only after Fanny is murdered on the grounds of Mansfield Park that Mary comes into her own, teaming-up with a thief-taker from London to solve the crime. Featuring genuine Austen characters--the same characters, and the same episodes, but each with a new twist--MURDER AT MANSFIELD PARK is a brilliantly entertaining novel that offers Jane Austen fans an engaging new heroine and story to read again and again.

A Novel

Murder at Mansfield Park

Summoned to the offices of Victorian London's most powerful and dangerous solicitors, disgraced police officer turned independent detective Charles Maddox turns to his famous but aging investigator uncle to identify who has been sending threatening letters to a client. By the author of Murder at Mansfield Park. 30,000 first printing.

The Solitary House

Victorian detective Charles Maddox travels to the remote castle of the enigmatic Baron Von Reisenberg, a pioneering scientist with a terrible secret. 10,000 first printing.

The Pierced Heart

Mansfield Park Murder

Treacherous Likeness

Commissioned to negotiate the release of papers linked to the celebrated poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, London detective Charles Maddox must determine if the papers are authentic, but his disturbing investigation uncovers signs of foul play.

A Fatal Likeness

In het Victoriaanse Londen van Charles Dickens worden enkele gruwelijke moorden gepleegd.

Kerkhof in Londen / druk 1

London, 1850. Fog in the air and filth in the streets, from the rat-infested graveyard of Tom-All-Alone's to the elegant chambers in Lincoln's Inn Fields, where the formidable lawyer Edward Tulkinghorn has powerful clients to protect, and a deadly secret to hide. Only that secret is now under threat from a shadowy and unseen adversary - an adversary who must be tracked down at all costs, before it's too late.Who better for such a task than young Charles Maddox? Unfairly dismissed from the police force, Charles is struggling to establish himself as a private detective. Only business is slow and his one case a dead end, so when Tulkinghorn offers a handsome price for an apparently simple job Charles is unable to resist. But as he soon discovers, nothing here is what it seems. An assignment that starts with anonymous letters leads soon to a brutal murder, as the investigation lures Charles ever deeper into the terrible darkness Tulkinghorn will stop at nothing to conceal. Inspired by Charles Dickens' masterpiece Bleak House, Tom-All-Alone's is a new and gripping Victorian murder mystery which immerses the reader in a grim London underworld that Dickens could only hint at - a world in which girls as young as ten work the night as prostitutes, unwanted babies are ruthlessly disposed of, and those who threaten the rank and reputations of great men are eliminated at once, and without remorse.

Tom-All-Alone's

Helene Wecker

Ellen Ullman

James Robertson

Andrew Taylor

Pietro Grossi

Alex Bledsoe

Felix Palma

"Story Behind the Book: Volume 4" collects nearly 40 essays about writing and editing fiction from some of the most talented authors working today. These essays reveal intricacies and secrets behind the craft and offer a unique and unprecedented insight into the creative process. Includes following "Story Behind the Book" essays: "The Professor of Truth" by James Robertson "The Bug" by Ellen Ullman "The Golem and the Jinni" by Helene Wecker "The Center of the World" by Thomas Van Essen "Enchantment" by Pietro Grossi "The Delphi Room" by Melia McClure "A Fatal Likeness" by Lynn Shepherd "The Scent of Death" by Andrew Taylor "The Map of the Sky" by Felix J. Palma "Murder by the Book" by Eric Brown "This Strange Way of Dying" by Silvia Moreno Garcia "The Broken Ones" by Stephen M. Irwin "The 'Geisters" by David Nickle "Blackwater Lights" by Michael Hughes "Cain's Blood" by Geoffrey Girard "Rivers" by Michael Farris Smith "Your Brother's Blood" by David Towsey "Strange Mammals" by Jason Erik Lundberg "The Carpet Makers" by Andreas Eschbach "The Ravenglass Eye" by Tom Fletcher "The One-Eyed Man" by L. E. Modesitt Jr. "Copperhead" by Tina Connolly "The Tide King" by Jen Michalski "Gallow" by Nathan Hawke "Elysian Fields" by Suzanne Johnson "Theirs Not to Reason Why" by Jean Johnson "Aliens: Recent Encounters" by Alex Dally MacFarlane "Clockwork Fairy Tales" by Stephen L. Antczak "23 Years on Fire" by Joel Shepherd "The Shifted World" by Philippa Ballantine "Bang Bang" by Patrick Malloy "Gods of Earth" by Craig DeLancey "Wisp of a Thing" by Alex Bledsoe "Dream London" by Tony Ballantyne "Persistence of Memory" by Winona Kent "Disability in Science Fiction: Representations of Technology as Cure" by Kathryn Allan "King Breaker" by Rowena Cory Daniells "Gideon Smith & the Mechanical Girl" by David Barnett

Volume 4 (Essays on Writing and Editing Fiction)

Story Behind the Book

The horrors linger beyond the castle walls... When Detective Charles Maddox is requested to look into the mysterious Baron Von Reisenberg, he welcomes the chance to trade London streets for a castle in the Viennese countryside. Though the Baron is the subject of macabre legends, Maddox doesn’t care for supernatural beliefs. That is, until the foreboding shadows of the castle haunt him with nightmares and he is plagued by a series of disturbing incidents... Back home, London is on the verge of widespread panic. Greeted with a string of grisly murders committed by a killer branded the Vampire, Maddox believes he knows who is behind the attacks. In a battle against time, Maddox must finally end the Vampire’s terror...before more blood is spilled. In a darkly twisted tale based on Bram Stoker’s legendary Dracula comes a murder mystery set in the heart of Victorian London.

A pulse-racing, intensely dark historical crime novel

The London Vampire

The Mansfield Park Murder

There has been a new interest recently in the intersection of the visual and the verbal in Samuel Richardson's novels, from his use of spatial and pictorial imagery, to the contemporary illustrations to Pamela. This lavishly-illustrated book goes one step further, considering the novels in the context of 18th-century portraiture.

Portraiture, Illustration, and Representation in the Novels of Samuel Richardson

Clarissa's Painter

In the dying days of 1850 the young detective Charles Maddox takes on a new case. His client? The only surviving son of the long-dead poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and his wife Mary, author of Frankenstein. Charles soon finds himself being drawn into the bitter battle being waged over the poet's literary legacy, but then he makes a chance discovery that raises new doubts about the death of Shelley's first wife, Harriet, and he starts to question whether she did indeed kill herself, or whether what really happened was far more sinister than suicide. As he's drawn deeper into the tangled web of the past, Charles discovers darker and more disturbing secrets, until he comes face to face with the terrible possibility that his own great-uncle is implicated in a conspiracy to conceal the truth that stretches back more than thirty years. The story of the Shelleys is one of love and death, of loss and betrayal. In this follow-up to the acclaimed Tom-All-Alone's, Lynn Shepherd offers her own fictional version of that story, which suggests new and shocking answers to mysteries that still persist to this day, and have never yet been fully explained. Praise for Tom-All-Alone's: A brilliant and sinister remake of Bleak House, exposing the vicious underworld of Victorian London. Totally gripping. - John Carey. Dickens' s world described with modern precision. - The Times. Beaitifully written... an absorbing read - Literary Review. A necessary eye for squalor, meticulous research and deft plotting make this a book... you'll be guaranteed to enjoy. - Guardian.

A Treacherous Likeness

Si hay un personaje de Jane Austen que despierta rechazo, esa es Fanny Price, la moralista, insípida y tímida protagonista de Mansfield Park. Por eso Lynn Shepherd no ha podido resistir la tentación de transformarla en un personaje radicalmente opuesto. Fanny es aquí una rica y malcriada heredera, y Mary Crawford se ha convertido en un ser bondadoso que sufre todo tipo de humillaciones a manos de su vengativa vecina. Cuando Fanny es asesinada en los jardines de Mansfield Park, Mary asume el protagonismo, aliándose con el investigador Maddox para resolver el crimen.

Crimen en Mansfield Park

Londen 1850. Mist en vuile straten, en een begraafplaats met de naam Tom-All-Alone's waar ratten wonen. De eerbiedwaardige advocaat Edward Tulkinghorn houdt kantoor in een chique huis in Lincoln's Inn Fields, waar hij zijn machtige cliënten beschermt en een dodelijk geheim verbergt. Dat geheim dreigt te worden onthuld door een schimmige en onzichtbare tegenstander, die koste wat het kost moet worden opgespoord en tot zwijgen gebracht. Ex-politieagent Charles Maddox, nu privédetective, moet die klus klaren. Algauw wordt de eerste gruwelijke moord gepleegd. Lynn Shepherd heeft zich voor Kerkhof in Londen laten inspireren door Charles Dickens' meesterwerk Bleak House. Ze is verdergegaan waar Dickens moest ophouden: in haar spannende historische roman beschrijft ze een wereld waarin jeugdprostituees en te vondeling gelegde baby's ten prooi vallen aan de hebzucht en seksuele afwijkingen van de gegoede burgerij. En iedereen die daartegenin wil gaan wordt op genadeloze wijze uit de weg geruimd.

Kerkhof in Londen

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY KIRKUS REVIEWS With The Solitary House, award-winning author Lynn Shepherd introduced readers to Charles Maddox, a brilliant private detective plying his trade on the gaslit streets of Dickensian London. Now, in this mesmerizing new novel of historical suspense, a mystery strikes disturbingly close to home—and draws Maddox into a world of literary legends, tormented souls, and a legacy of terrible secrets. When his great-uncle, the master detective who schooled him in the science of “thief taking,” is mysteriously stricken, Charles Maddox fears that the old man’s breakdown may be directly related to the latest case he’s been asked to undertake. Summoned to the home of a stuffy nobleman and his imperious wife, Charles finds his investigative services have been engaged by no less than the son of celebrated poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his famed widow, Mary, author of the gothic classic Frankenstein. Approached by a stranger offering to sell a cache of rare papers allegedly belonging to the legendary late poet, the Shelley family seeks Maddox’s aid in discovering whether the precious documents are authentic or merely the work of an opportunistic charlatan. But the true identity of his quarry is only the first of many surprises lying in wait for the detective. Hardly a conniving criminal, Claire Clairmont is in fact the stepsister of Mary Shelley, and their tortured history of jealousy, obsession, and dark deceit looms large over the affair Maddox must untangle. So, too, does the shadow of the brilliant, eccentric Percy Shelley, who found no rest from the private demons that pursued him. With each new detail unearthed, the investigation grows ever more disturbing. And when shocking evidence of foul play comes to light, Maddox’s chilling hunt for the truth leads him into the blackest reaches of the soul. Steeped in finely wrought Victorian atmosphere, and rife with eye-opening historical revelations, A Fatal Likeness carries the reader ever deeper into a darkly magnetic tale of love and madness as utterly harrowing and heartbreaking as it is undeniably human. This eBook edition includes the complete text of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, a classic novel that’s referenced in A Fatal Likeness! Praise for Lynn Shepherd and A Fatal Likeness “As a piece of literary detective work, it’s stimulating and hugely fun—even brilliant.”—The Spectator “A potent mixture of passion, intrigue, perversion, and betrayal, exploring the lives of Shelley, Byron, and their Romantic intimates through a Gothic lens.”—Lyndsay Faye, author of The Gods of Gotham “A wonderfully ingenious novel: perceptive, gripping, and fascinating.”—Miranda Seymour, author of Mary Shelley “Shepherd sets a new standard of brilliance in historical fiction with A Fatal Likeness. Her summoning of dead souls—Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and their most intimate circle—is so psychologically penetrating, it feels like truth. Exquisitely rendered in Shepherd’s pitch-perfect prose, this tale will haunt the reader long after its close.”—Stephanie Barron, author of Jane and the Canterbury Tale “A literary thriller that weaves back and forth in time and gives some plausible answers to certain genuine biographical mysteries . . . [The novel’s] conclusion has haunted me ever since I finished the book. But if you want to know what it is, you’ll have to read it yourself.”—The Independent

Lynn Shepherd

About

Books

Join the club