Veronica Speedwell returns in a brand new adventure from
Deanna Raybourn, the New York Times bestselling
author of the Lady Julia Grey mysteries... London, 1887. Victorian adventuress and butterfly
hunter Veronica Speedwell receives an invitation to visit
the Curiosity Club, a ladies-only establishment for daring
and intrepid women. There she meets the mysterious Lady
Sundridge, who begs her to take on an impossible taskβsaving
society art patron Miles Ramsforth from execution. Accused
of the brutal murder of his artist mistress Artemisia,
Ramsforth will face the hangmanβs noose in a weekβs time if
Veronica cannot find the real killer.
But Lady Sundridge is not all that she seems, and unmasking
her true identity is only the first of the many secrets
Veronica must uncover. Together with her natural historian
colleague Stoker, Veronica races against time to find the
true murdererβa ruthless villain who not only took
Artemisiaβs life in cold blood but is happy to see Ramsforth
hang for the crime. From a Bohemian artistsβ colony to a
royal palace to a subterranean grotto with a decadent
history, the investigation proves to be a very perilous
undertaking indeed....