A DEADLY DECEPTION written by Tessa Harris is a mystery that takes place in 1889 in London. If you love a little past with your suspense, then Harris’ novel is one you might want to pick up. It is the third in the Constance Piper Series and the first that I have read, so it makes a great stand-alone. I love the feel it gave, making me think of a cold London night. I could almost see the fog in chapters that took place out on the London streets.
Residences of Whitechapel in London during 1889 have begun to get over the murder of Mary Jane Kelly from eight months earlier. Then another murder, that of Alice Mackenzie, has stirred up fearful thoughts and anxiety all over again. People whisper that maybe Jack the Ripper is back. Constance Piper, who has a psychic gift and is a friend of both murdered women, uncovered some pretty good links between the murders and who may be involved. Can she solve the secrets in this London town before there are any more murders?
Tessa Harris has a way of bringing some supernatural touches to her mysteries with her main character having powers that make her see what others cannot. A DEADLY DECEPTION not only a Victorian mystery with gruesome murders but a mystery with great solid characters such as Constance who is a go getter, that will not stop until the truth is found. You cannot help but love her. This is a mystery that I would recommend picking up for a nice cozy night in.
The streets of Victorian London are clothed in shadows and secrets in Tessa Harris’s gripping new mystery featuring flower seller Constance Piper … London, July 1889. Eight months have passed since the horrific murder of Mary Jane Kelly. The residents of Whitechapel have begun breathing easy again—daring to leave windows open and walk about at twilight. But when old Alice McKenzie is found dead, throat slashed from ear to ear, the whispers begin once more: Jack the Ripper is back.
Constance Piper, a flower seller with a psychic gift, was a friend to both women. With the supernatural help of her late mentor, Miss Emily Tindall, and her more grounded ally, police detective Thaddeus Hawkins, she uncovers links between the murders and a Fenian gang. The Fenians, committed to violence to further their goal of an independent Ireland, are also implicated in a vicious attack in which the Countess of Kildane’s uncle was killed. Could the Whitechapel murders be a ruse to make the British police look helpless?
Soon, Constance is called upon for help. But there are spies everywhere in the city, and a bomb plot intended to incur devastating carnage. And as Constance is fast discovering, the greatest evil may not lurk in the grimy alleys of the East End, but in a conspiracy that runs from Whitechapel to the highest office in the land …