Kathryn Ardleigh is everything the Victoria English gentlewoman is not -- outspoken, free-thinking, American.. and a writer of the frowned upon "penny-dreadfuls." She shocked her ancestral home at Bishop's Keep -- and captured the interest of detective Sir Charles Sheridan as they solved their first case together.

Now the brutal demise of a local constable and the mysterious disappearance of a child have the sleuthing couple on the trail of deadly greed and criminal mischief once again. And with the help of a shy young woman who calls herself Beatrix Potter, Kate intends to uncover the sinister secrets of Gallows Green....