Hidden in the depths of eighteenth-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientèle. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary's fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious twelve-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries....

The story of Little Nell, the beautiful child thrown into a shadowy, terrifying world, seems to belong less to the history of the Victorian novel than to folklore, fairy tale, or myth. The sorrows of Nell and her grandfather are offset by Dickens's creation of a dazzling contemporary world inhabited by some of his most brilliantly drawn characters-the eloquent ne'er-do-well Dick Swiveller; the hungry maid known as the "Marchioness"; the mannish lawyer...

Thomas Pitt, once a lowly policeman, is now the powerful head of Britain's Special Branch, and some people fear that he may have been promoted beyond his abilities. He, too, feels painful moments of self-doubt, especially as rumors reach him of a plot to blow up connections on the Dover-London rail line--on which Austrian duke Alois Habsburg is soon to travel to visit his royal English kin. Why would anyone destroy an entire train to kill one obscure...

The year is 1722. Ruffian for hire, ex-boxer, and master of disguise, Londoner Benjamin Weaver finds himself caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, pitted against Jerome Cobb, a wealthy and mysterious schemer who needs Weaver's strength and guile for his own treacherous plans. To save his friends and family from Cobb's reach--and more importantly to secure the welfare of England--Weaver must infiltrate the East India Company, navigate its warring...

The candid adventures of the 17th century English harlot whose life ended with her penitence.

"Dora Blake is a talented jewelry designer who lives under the thumb of her suspicious and odious uncle, who is running her late parents' beloved shop of antiquities into the ground. When he begins acting erratically after a mysterious Greek vase is delivered and locked in the basement, Dora enlists the help of Edward Lawrence, a young antiquarian scholar, who (unbeknownst to her) sees the vase as an opportunity to unlock his academic future. Dora...

Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, investigates the identity of two corpses found in an ancient crypt with possible ties to William Franklin, the embittered son of American patriot Ben Franklin.