Bøger af Cynthia Peale

When the lights come on after a séance in the parlor of Victorian Boston’s most celebrated spiritualist, a pillar of the community lies dead. The world of restless and vengeful spirits has invaded Beacon Hill--while Caroline Ames, seated next to the victim, may hold the key to an all-too-real crime. From the mysterious device called the telephone to the new electric conveyances that cross the Charles, a tide of change is rising around Caroline, her brother, Addington, and their boarder, Dr. MacKenzie. For Caroline, it has been a time to face her loneliness--and the growing affection she feels for Dr. MacKenzie. For Addington, it is a time marked by the fierce, ineffable pull of a beautiful but dangerous woman. Now they find themselves in the center of a maelstrom, at the heart of a case of multiple murder. And while a killer has already claimed two victims, a clairvoyant has revealed the third: “Ames next . . .”

Behind the curtained windows of Victorian Boston is a world of passion, scandal ... and murder.In life, he was the most despised man in Boston, publisher of the town''s scurrilous gossip sheet -- and buyer and seller of people''s most scandalous indiscretions. Now Colonel William d''Arcy Mann lies on the floor of his fashionable hotel suite, the victim of a single gunshot wound to the heart.Addington Ames came to recover a packet of love letters written by his young cousin, Val, that had fallen into the blackmailing colonel''s possession. But when he discovers Mann''s corpse instead, Ames suddenly finds himself at the center of a murder inquiry, his name splashed across the town newspapers. With Val facing public disgrace -- on the eve of marriage to an impeccable member of Brahmin society -- Ames''s only hope is to find the damning missives, which he believes vanished with the killer. With the help of his sister, Caroline, and their boarder, Dr. John MacKenzie, he moves through Boston''s most prominent social circles in search of a well-concealed murderer whose final act of violence will leave no life -- highborn or low -- untouched...

IN A HAVEN FOR FALLEN WOMEN, HAS HISTORY’S MOST DEPRAVED KILLER RISEN AGAIN?The Back Bay has been filled in. Palm readers and prostitutes ply their trade in South Cove. And the watchword of the day is “NINA:” No Irish Need Apply. Boston in 1892 is a town of Victorian pride, prejudice, and private passions. Now, on Beacon Hill, a crusading woman and her genteel brother, Addington, are investigating two grisly murders of young women, the work, say police, of “a deranged person.” For Caroline Ames, solving the mystery is a matter of helping an old friend, the woman who runs a home for wayward women known as Bertram’s Bower. But for Addington, the investigation will lead to the revelations of a sexually alluring, scandal-struck actress...and to the secrets of some of Boston’s most “respectable” men.As Addington confronts the hypocrisy of Brahmin society, he moves closer to a shocking suspicion about the killer’s identity. And as fear grips the city, the evidence points in one frightening direction: that London’s Jack the Ripper is alive, well, and killing again. . .