Showing results by author "Irina Shapiro" in All Categories

Louisiana, 1858. Spirited fifteen-year-old Madeline Besson arrives at Arabella Plantation after her father’s sudden death, burdened by grief. She is soon overwhelmed by the grand house, her charismatic cousin, George, and her grandmother’s cold and inexplicable hatred. But as Madeline becomes entangled in the Besson family’s dark history, a shocking affair leads to banishment and disgrace. Trapped in a remote bayou cabin, she faces her fate alone…

Berwick-upon-Tweed, 1461. When Lady Catherine Dancy saves the life of a wounded knight, Guy de Rosel, her fate is sealed. Though they share a powerful connection, Guy’s manipulative brother Hugh discovers her identity and forces her into a loveless political marriage. Trapped in the crumbling de Rosel keep on the Scottish borders, Catherine faces an impossible choice between duty and desire. But Hugh’s cruel ambitions run deeper than she knows, and when betrayal strikes, will the chapel where she sought solace become her tomb?

Petrograd, 1917. Eighteen-year-old Valentina Kalinina’s life of aristocratic privilege is shattered in an instant when Bolshevik rebels storm her home. Her father is murdered before her eyes, her beloved fiancé Alexei falls to a revolutionary’s bayonet, and Valentina barely escapes to England with her life. Stranded in a foreign country with no money or support, salvation arrives in the form of a charming cousin, Dmitri, who offers her sanctuary in his Belgravia mansion. Valentina believes her nightmare is over, until she realizes that Dmitri’s generosity comes at a horrifying price…

London, 1664. Seventeen-year-old Elise de Lesseps wakes on the morning of her wedding, knowing her life is over. Sold into marriage to settle her father’s gaming debts, she’s bound to Lord Edward Asher—a man old enough to be her father and who harbors a twisted secret that will shatter her innocence forever. But when Elise meets James, Edward’s illegitimate son, her life is transformed by something neither of them expected: a love so powerful, it will cost them everything…

Dunwich, 1346. Petra’s world shattered the day the Church took her beloved Avery, forcing him into holy orders and leaving her to face a brutal arranged marriage. Twelve years later, Petra is a widow struggling to care for her three children when Father Avery returns. But religious hysteria is sweeping through their crumbling port town, and when Petra’s son’s violent seizures mark him as cursed, can she turn to the only man she ever loved for help, or will a terrible secret she hid condemn them all?

London, 1955. Nurse Helen Brent has spent twenty-six years believing she’ll never find love. Then she meets her new patient, David Edevane. Despite a tragic upbringing, David is kind and stable, and their whirlwind romance quickly leads to marriage and pregnancy. But Helen’s world collapses when she uncovers a dreadful secret, and she will carry the consequences of her silence for the rest of her days…

Cornwall, 1620. Mary Wilby flees her brutal uncle’s house to board the Lady Grace as a colonial bride bound for Virginia. She prays that marriage to plantation owner John Forrester will bring the peace and security she craves, but she soon discovers her new husband harbors deadly secrets. Only one man offers her hope of escape from this waking nightmare: Walker, a half-English, half-Native American man haunted by his own tragic past. But their carefully laid plans for escape take a devastating turn…

Ireland, 1588. Rafael de Silva washes ashore on an Irish beach after a catastrophic shipwreck, carrying only his secret Jewish faith and a golden hamsa. He is starving and desperate when he meets Aisling O’Rourke, a local chieftain’s niece, and experiences a blinding desire he has never felt before. But their love is impossible, and when Rafael’s precious hamsa is discovered, he faces a terrible choice: admit to a secret that could see him nailed to a cross or watch an innocent man die in his place.

New York, 1777. Jocelyn Sinclair’s life depends on deception. By day, she’s a humble servant in British Major Hector Radcliffe’s household, invisible and overlooked. By night, she risks everything as a spy for the Continental Army, gathering intelligence that could turn the tide of war. When she meets the enigmatic Captain Jared Denning, their forbidden attraction threatens to expose her carefully constructed lies. But Jocelyn discovers too late that the greatest danger doesn’t come from enemy soldiers but from someone she trusted with her life…

Still grieving the death of her husband, Lauren leaves the hubbub of Boston for the peaceful shores of Cape Cod, where she hopes to come to terms with her loss and devote herself to her writing. Historic Holland House, isolated on a hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, seems like the perfect refuge, until Lauren discovers that she’s not alone, and her ghostly roommate might be none other than Sophie Holland, the mysterious first mistress of the house.

When the body of a young woman is exhumed from unconsecrated ground—her remains marked by signs of a deviant burial—Jason and Daniel are drawn into a case steeped in fear and folklore. Whispers of the occult and tales of vampires, which had recently gripped London society, force them to confront the strange and the supernatural. But the more they uncover about the victim, the more the bizarre precautions taken with her body seem misplaced. Was she truly a vampire, a witch, or merely a tragic figure whose brutal death and macabre burial were meant to stoke fear—or silence the curious?

Gemma Tate has a new job and a new address. She is putting her past – her memories of nursing in the Crimean war – behind her. But when Jacob Harrow, a journalist with ties to Crimea, is found brutally killed, Gemma is pulled into the investigation. Police inspector Sebastian Bell works alone. But when all signs point toward a dark secret Harrow brought back from the war, he realizes he needs Gemma’s help to untangle the mystery. But raking up the past has devastating consequences when Gemma’s friend, another nurse from Crimea, is found murdered in her boarding house…

When the body of a young woman is found near the ruins of a haunted abbey, everyone assumes she died of fright. A postmortem examination tells a different story. Not only was Elizabeth Barrett poisoned, but the lethal dose of cyanide must have been administered by someone close to her - someone she trusted, who may have known her secret. As Captain Redmond and Constable Haze delve into the victim's seemingly ordinary life, they learn she wasn't the proper, biddable wife everyone believed her to be.

When the body of a young man is found stuffed into the tomb of a medieval knight, Parish Constable Daniel Haze is tasked with investigating his first solo murder case. Suspicion instantly falls on the only stranger to arrive in the village of Birch Hill just before the crime took place, but the American captain proves to be an unexpected asset. A former soldier and a skilled surgeon, Jason Redmond is not only willing to assist Haze with the investigation but will risk his own safety to apprehend the killer.

When a severed head is left on the steps of Newgate Prison, Lord Redmond and Inspector Haze are left with few clues to solve the murder. Even after the victim is identified as the prison’s hangman, narrowing down the number of suspects proves difficult when the victim was responsible for dozens of deaths, leaving a long list of relatives who might have wanted revenge.

When the body of a renowned British archeologist is found inside a sarcophagus he was bringing back from a dig in Egypt, Redmond and Haze must determine who aboard the Sea Witch had reason to want him dead. The method of murder suggests it was someone familiar with the funerary rites of the Ancient Egyptians, casting suspicion on members of the expedition, but there were others aboard the vessel who might have harbored a grudge against Blake Upton for reasons unconnected to the dig.

Hours later, the man’s cold body lies in the city mortuary, alongside the woman he couldn’t save. And his sister, unconventional nurse Gemma Tate, tracks down troubled police inspector Sebastian Bell to unravel the truth. Sebastian has enough pressure to solve the murder of an aristocratic heiress without Gemma meddling in his case. But the cryptic sentences she brings him from her brother’s notebook could be a crucial lead. If only they knew what “milky way” meant.

When the body of gentlewoman is found in a Romani caravan, and a second woman from the village of Birch Hill goes missing, Redmond and Haze must peel back the layers of lies, prejudice, and misdirection to discover who’s truly behind the crimes. With little connection between the victims, no obvious motive, and few clues, the case is their most challenging to date. Can they solve it before the killer strikes again? Perfect for fans of Anne Perry and C.S. Harris.

Summoned to a historic Tudor manor, Jason and Daniel are charged with investigating the heart-wrenching murder of two small boys. To discover who would have a motive to commit such a heinous crime, they must delve into the unexpectedly complicated relationships between the manor’s inhabitants.

The discovery of a young woman’s body drifting down the Thames, her hair adorned with flowers and her legs wrapped in blue silk like a mermaid’s tail, presents Lord Jason Redmond and Inspector Daniel Haze with a puzzling new mystery. Who was she, why was she murdered, and what led the killer to leave her body displayed this way? Was it an act of love, meant to make the victim appear beautiful in death, or was there a more sinister reason?