World's End Bureau Victorian Mystery

London, 1880. "I'm dreadfully afraid someone is threatening to kill my wife …" When accounts clerk Ernest Stibbins approaches the World's End investigation bureau with wild claims that his wife Albertina has been warned by her spirit guides that someone is out to harm her, the bureau's owner Lily Raynor and her new employee Felix Wilbraham are initially skeptical. How are the two private enquiry agents supposed to investigate threats from beyond the grave? But after she attends a séance at the Stibbins family home, Lily comes to realize that Albertina is in terrible danger. And very soon so too is Lily herself …

Private investigators Lily Raynor and Felix Wilbraham get more than they bargain for when they take on a case in a girls' boarding school, in the latest World's End Bureau Victorian mystery. London, 1881. Lily Raynor, owner of the World's End Investigation Bureau, is growing increasingly worried. Work is drying up, finances are tight and she cannot find enough for her sole employee, Felix Wilbraham, to do. So when schoolteacher Georgiana Long arrives, with a worrying tale of runaway pupils, it seems like the answer to her prayers. The case is an interesting one, and what could be less perilous than a trip to a girls' boarding school, out in the Fens? Disguised as the new Assistant Matron, Lily joins the Shardlowes School staff, while Felix - suppressing his worries about his cool, calm employer - remains behind. But there are undercurrents at Shardlowes, and the shadowy, powerful men who fund the school's less fortunate pupils loom larger as Felix's own investigations unfold. Felix can't shake off his fear that Lily is in danger - and soon, his premonitions come frighteningly true ...

Private investigators Lily Raynor and Felix Wilbraham tackle a puzzling miscarriage of justice and the curious case of a missing child, in the new, gripping World's End Bureau Victorian mystery. London, August 1881. After a difficult few months, the World's End Investigation Bureau is thriving. Affairs, sex scandals, divorces . . . Lily Raynor is delighted to have so much work for herself and her capable assistant, Felix Wilbraham, but she can't help wishing for a case that doesn't involve the rich, over-indulged - and not terribly moral - upper classes. It's a wish she soon has cause to regret. The Reverend James Jellicote arrives at the Bureau, seeking help on behalf of an elderly Jewish refugee who fled the pogroms in Russia. Yelisaveta and her young grandson arrived safely in London, only for the unspeakable to happen: eleven-year-old Yakov disappeared, without a trace. The case is impossible to refuse, but seems equally impossible to solve. And troubles don't come alone. Soon, Lily and Felix have another impossible puzzle on their hands. Hop-picker Abel Spokewright was hanged last year for murder, but his brother Jared is determined to clear his name. If Abel didn't kill cheerful, pretty dairymaid Effie, though, who did? Only one thing's certain: the murderer isn't going to be happy about having the past raked up . . .