Angus Brodie and Mikaela Forsythe Murder Mysteries

London, 1889 - Murder, mystery, and two people in a most unlikely partnership. She's an unconventional lady who has traveled the world, practices the art of self-defense most excellently, and has an interesting tattoo in-ahem-a very unusual place. He's a former member of the Metropolitan Police, now a private investigator, who grew up on the poverty-ridden streets of Edinburgh and has worked the dangerous back alleys of London's notorious East End. A vicious murder brings them together in a race against time that takes them from the sordid back streets of London into the elite private clubs of the powerful and rich. They must find the killer before he strikes again and prevent a deadly scheme. A scandalous affair, deceptions, and secrets will challenge what they know and what they believe. Come along as the lady and the detective join forces in an amazing time of new inventions, startling discoveries, and unexpected revelations. A young woman who doesn't rely on anyone is forced to trust the irascible Scot who is as tough as they come and just might learn a thing or two from her...if they don't end up dead!

A severed foot. Fingerprints left on a wine glass. A secret cipher code. The scent of orange and cinnamon left behind by the murderer. Mikaela Forsythe, adventuress, author, and now private investigator, is back. She is pulled into a deadly case that may just see her friend, actress Theodora Templeton, sent to prison for murder when a severed foot is found in her bed, and a high-ranking official has gone missing. Is it a crime of passion or something far more sinister? Only one person can assist: former police inspector Angus Brodie, the irascible Scot who challenges her at every turn. But Brodie is reluctant to take the case of a woman who communicates with the dead and keeps a four-foot iguana as a pet-until there is another murder and then another. As the body count rises, Mikaela and Brodie are forced to undertake a dangerous scheme to expose the murderer. But secrets lie in wait, and desperate people will take desperate measures to protect those secrets. All the while, Mikaela's great aunt has decided to go on safari, the Mudger and Rupert are caught up in the case, and a brilliant young man-Bloody hell! Another Scot!-has joined the team. Then there is that undeniable attraction to deal with that lies simmering just beneath the surface for two people who could not be more different... What is an independent lady to do?

London, 1890-It's a New Year, but murder never takes a holiday. The past reaches out to the unlikely investigative team of Angus Brodie and Mikaela Forsythe when a man she was once engaged to marry seeks her assistance to find his young runaway son. However, a simple case of following the clues left behind becomes far more as the search unravels her former fiancé's secrets. Mikaela is determined to find the answers, and yet Brodie can't keep his mind off of his own questions about this woman who is too darn independent; aggravates him no end with her lists, theories, and ideas; puts her life at risk; and may still have feelings for the man she might have once married...questions that might complicate this already complicated partnership of theirs. When the boy's father is found dead, everything they thought they knew about the case is turned on its head, and new motives start to take form. It's a race against time when the boy's school jacket is discovered along with a note. Mikaela and Brodie must work side by side with his mother, a woman who makes no attempt to hide her dislike for Mikaela and is determined to protect her husband's legacy at all cost, and who sends them into a place where the hunters become the hunted, and they must work together once more to survive.

What is real or only an illusion? Ghostly images appear and float across the stage, objects levitate into the air, and a beautiful assistant disappears inside a glass box, then reappears inside a second glass box. All while the audience at the Crystal Palace, including amateur investigator Mikaela Forsythe, watch the performance. Is it real? Can the audience believe what they see? Then, an evening with her friend, Theodora Templeton, attending the one-night performance by master illusionist Jean Luc Betard, takes a ghastly turn and plunges Mikaela headlong into murder when the illusionist's young assistant is found dead at the end of his newest stunt. The police, specifically Chief Inspector Abberline, who is also in attendance, declare it a tragic accident in an illusion gone wrong. But after making her own observations, Mikaela is not convinced and places a call to Private Investigator Angus Brodie. Theirs is a complicated partnership, more so with his latest work with the Special Services organization at the conclusion of their previous case and that particularly complicated conversation he insisted on having with her. Irritating man! Nevertheless, Mikaela is certain there is more amiss than merely a tragic accident, and Brodie is forced to admit that she may be right, pulling them together once more, personal feelings aside. Or possibly not... That certainty takes both of them on a dangerous trail of clues that appear then just as quickly disappear, much like the illusionist's tricks. The case is no sleight of hand but a series of dangerous illusions meant to deceive both Mikaela and Brodie and perhaps make them both disappear for good while the murderer goes about his deadly scheme. And then, there is that conversation that she walked out on before, but he insists on having, even in the midst of murder. Oh my!

A thirty-year-old murder... Old Town, Edinburgh. In a squalid tenement where poverty, rats, and disease are rampant, a young woman who worked in a local tavern lies dying. Just another number and bound for a pauper's grave in Greyfriars Kirkyard. A boy found standing in his mother's blood... Alone, his grandmother the only family left, young Angus Brodie hides in the shadows nearby, the bronze medallion his dying mother pressed into his hand clenched in a tight fist as the constables carry her body from the tenement. And a name overheard-the man who was there that night, seen by the woman who collected the rents. A vow made. A promise to be kept... As his mother lay dying, Angus Brodie vowed that he would find the one responsible for her death, no matter how long it took.

A clandestinely taken photograph of the daughter of one of London's most prominent citizens sets Brodie and Mikaela off on a new case to find out who took the photograph of the now-missing girl. When the family receives a second photograph of their daughter, who is quite obviously dead, their simple inquiry becomes a murder investigation. But this is no routine investigation as another photograph is received, and another body is found. As more bodies turn up, and with no known motive, Brodie and Mikaela must confront the fact that the murderer is brilliant, disturbingly talented, and quite possibly insane. What drives this cold-blooded killer to capture the last moments of their victims with such haunting clarity? Brodie has his own thoughts from years of experience with the Metropolitan Police, while Mikaela has an entirely different take on the murders. Their inquiries take them from a struggling photographer who takes iconic photos around London and sells them for the stereopticons that have become so popular to a casual photographer on the street with his box camera and into galleries where photo exhibits are shown. All the while, they are exploring the next step in their relationship. As the murderer becomes bolder, the photograph of his next victim appears in the Times of London, sparking the prominent families of the city to fear the worst. Until Brodie receives a photograph of Mikaela…