A Charm of Magpies
Alt-Victorian fantasy romance trilogy featuring smuggler turned nobleman Lord Crane and magical enforcer Stephen Day. Three novels plus assorted shorts.
Set in the same world as the Charm of Magpies stories with different MCs. ‘A Queer Trade’ (set around the time of A Case of Possession) introduces Crispin Tredarloe and Ned Hall, and they then feature in Rag and Bone. Jackdaw is the story of Jonah Pastern from Flight of Magpies. Jackdaw and Rag and Bone are both set after Flight, roughly at the same time, but they can be read in any order you please! Or not at all. I mean, it’s your life.
A Charm of Magpies World
Society of Gentlemen
Society of Gentlemen is set at a time of incredible privilege for the few and social turmoil for the many. Regency England is torn by war, poverty and social unrest, ruled by a draconian government. People are starving, rioting, rebelling. But the aristocrats dance on, in their glittering existence of balls, gambling, silks and scandal…
The trilogy covers three couples between autumn 1819 and spring 1820. A young Radical discovers his noble birth and is catapulted into a world of privilege, fashion and murder with a dandy as his guide. A government official and a revolutionary seditionist find common ground in their unconventional desires, under the threat of the gallows. And a lord in love with his valet struggles to find a way across the social abyss that divides them.
Each book is a standalone romance but the plots are linked and they should ideally be read in order. All three novels were rated Desert Island Keeper, the highest honour at All About Romance!
Sins of the Cities
Sins of the Cities is written in the spirit of the Victorian sensation novel (plots, shenanigans, murder, mystery, fog, secrets and scandals). London 1873. As one of the worst fogs of the nineteenth century closes in on the city, long-buried secrets are crawling into the light, and dragging all sorts of trouble with them.
The trilogy centres on a group of friends who meet at the Jack and Knave, a club for ladies and gentlemen of unconventional persuasion. Clem Talleyfer is an unassuming lodging-house keeper who just wants a quiet life; Nathaniel Roy is a lawyer turned journalist who likes nothing more than a crusade; Mark Braglewicz is a private enquiry agent. And all three are about to find themselves dragged into a long-simmering family secret that turns deadly.
The three books each have a standalone romance but there is a significant overarching suspense plot that reaches a climax in An Unsuitable Heir, so they should ideally be read in order.
Lilywhite Boys
London 1895. Jerry Crozier and Templeton Lane are the Lilywhite Boys: a pair of jewel thieves with a knack for infiltrating high society and getting away clean. They’re ruthless, shameless, and incredibly slippery. Nobody has ever managed to pin down the Lilywhite Boys.
Yet.
The series features characters from Sins of the Cities but there’s no need to read those books first and no overwhelming need to read these in order.
England World
Linked but standalone stories in a Golden Age pulp mood set in Edwardian England. Country-house murders all the way. Proper English features the origin story of characters from Think of England, but there is no need to read in order.
The Will darling Adventures
A m/m romance trilogy in the spirit of Golden Age pulp fiction. It’s the 1920s and tensions are rising along with hemlines. Soldier-turned-bookseller Will Darling finds himself tangled up in spies and secret formulas, clubs and conspiracies, Bolsheviks, blackmail, and Bright Young Things. And dubious aristocrat Lord Arthur ‘Kim’ Secretan is right in the middle of it all: enigmatic, unreliable, and utterly irresistible.
Please note that there is an ongoing story across the trilogy, and no full HEA until book 3 of the series.
Green Men World
Books set in an occult England.
Spectred Isle is linked by characters to the Secret Casebook. It was meant to be the first in the Green Men trilogy but I hit a wall and have not been able to write the rest, for which my apologies. Spectred Isle is a standalone romance with HEA, just some dangling plot threads.
Gentlemen of Uncertain Fortune
Very lightly linked books set in a lighthearted Regency world.
The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting features Robin Loxleigh; A Thief in the Night stars Robin’s brother, Toby Real Last Name Unknown. ‘A Rose By Any Name’ is an epilogue to both. The Duke at Hazard isn’t linked directly to either book but features cameos. No reading order!
The Doomsday Books
Romney Marsh, Kent, in the early 1800s. A remote part of England, thinly populated, misty, perfect for smugglers. The Doomsday clan run the free trade across the Dymchurch area of Romney Marsh. But two of them are about to get mixed up in conspiracy, murder, and unexpected love.
Secret Lives is the first book, with ‘If He Had His Legs’ as an epilogue. Nobleman’s Guide is set 13 years later and the plot is significantly based on characters and events of Secret Lives but it can be read as standalone if you must.
Standalone Books
Mostly standalone romances, but just as an FYI:
Death in the Spires is a murder mystery
The Henchmen of Zenda does not have a conventional romance HEA
‘The Price of Meat’ is horror really
A Pocketful of Lies is the bind-up of several novellas and shorts, and as such is only available in print.
