Cotton Cops Mysteries

A corpse in the ale. A scandal in society. A love neither expected.Lancashire, 1862. When a body is discovered floating in a vat of ale, Inspector Halliwell wastes no time in probing the town's most prosperous brewery. Every worker is a suspect-including Jacob Longworth, the enigmatic owner whose livelihood now hangs by a thread. Worse, whispers reveal the dead man was blackmailing Jacob, leaving him squarely in the constable's sights.Enter Lady Jane Yate: a darling of Victorian society, beloved patroness of the Women's Temperance League-and the last woman anyone expects to defend a brewer accused of murder. Yet Jane cannot ignore Jacob's plight, nor the forbidden spark that ignites between them.As passion simmers and scandal brews, Jane and Jacob are drawn into a dangerous game of secrets and lies. To clear his name, they must unmask a cunning killer before he strikes again-and before the desire that threatens to consume them both becomes a scandal all its own.

When the master of Blackstone Manor is poisoned, Detective Inspector Marcus Halliwell finds himself with no shortage of suspects.The master is dead. The soup is suspect. So is everyone else in the house.When the employer at Blackstone Manor is felled by a poisoned soup, suspicion falls immediately on the French chef - Raphael Poitiers and his fondness for mushrooms make a compelling case. But he is far from alone in the frame. The victim's longtime lady's maid, the housekeeper, the butler, the footman, and the light-fingered maid all have their own reasons to keep secrets. Even the ghost that supposedly haunts the manor refuses to be ruled out.Detective Inspector Marcus Halliwell has seen complicated cases before. This one may take the biscuit. Complicating matters is the obvious romance between the chef and the upstairs maid. Did they plot the murder together?