The new Ladies of Lantern Street novel from Amanda Quick explores the
crimes, passions, and paranormal secrets of Victorian London. Under the
plain gray skirts of Miss Beatrice Lockwood's gown, a pistol waits at
the ready. For Beatrice is a paid companion on a secret mission -- and
with a secret past -- and she must be prepared to fight for her life at
any moment. Yet she is thrown oddly off guard by the fierce-looking man
who joins her in foiling a crime outside a fancy ball -- and then
disappears into the shadows, leaving only his card. His name is Joshua
Gage, and he claims to know Beatrice's employers. Beyond that, he is an
enigma with a hypnotically calm voice and an ebony-and-steel cane. . . .
Joshua, who carries out clandestine investigations for the Crown, is
equally intrigued. He has a personal interest in Miss Lockwood, a
suspected thief and murderer, not to mention a fraudster who claims to
have psychical powers. The quest to discover her whereabouts has pulled
him away from his mournful impulses to hurl himself into the sea -- and
engaged his curiosity about the real Beatrice Lockwood, whose spirit, he
suspects, is not as delicate as her face and figure. He does know one
thing, though: This flame-haired beauty was present the night Roland
Fleming died at the Academy of the Occult. Guilty or not, she is his
guide to a trail of blood and blackmail, mesmerism and madness -- a path
that will lead both of them into the clutches of a killer who calls
himself the Bone Man. . . .
