Women Detectives
By Lynne Connolly, Author of The Girl with the Pearl Pin, The Society for Single Ladies Series
What do you do when you’re a single lady in a society intent on marriage? You form a society to investigate crime, of course.
In the eighteenth century, marriage was considered a woman’s primary purpose in life. But many women fell through the cracks, from spinsters without dowries to overlooked older sisters.
In my new series, The Society for Single Ladies, Angela Childers is an exception. She is too wealthy to marry. Distrusting of any man, she sets up a society for those of her mindset who have fewer resources. One of them is her companion and cousin, Phoebe North, who falls into trouble when she is accused of stealing a valuable set of diamonds.
I loved writing Phoebe’s story and that of her rescuer, Leo, or more formally, the Duke of Leomore. In The Girl with the Pearl Pin, he salvages her reputation and protects her from further scandal. Despite her stammer, Phoebe proves that she doesn’t need saving; she is perfectly capable of handling her own affairs. But Leo offers her something else—something she can’t resist.
In an age when there was no police force, people policed themselves. High society closed itself off to external investigation, unless the scandal was too huge to hide. Who knows what was covered up back then? There are a few scant clues but no more.
Fictionalizing those whispers gave me the opportunity to write about a group of intrepid women who decide to find their own justice. As the series progresses, people start coming to them as their reputation increases, but this first book is about the crime-solving club’s earliest days and the women destined to make The Society for Single Ladies such a raging, if discreet, success.
I discovered some fascinating things when I was researching this series. I can’t wait to share them with you!
About The Girl with the Pearl Pin
Founded by the wealthiest woman in London, an unconventional crime-solving club brings together single lords and overlooked ladies from every rung of society. It’s a perfectly scandalous match…
As London’s most sought-after bachelor, the Duke of Leomore stuns society when he announces his engagement to a woman who has just been branded a thief. Yet as his painfully shy bride-to-be understands, it is merely a ruse until The Society for Single Ladies apprehends the true culprit—and a ploy to further delay Leo’s obligation to wed. For him, marriage will be a purely practical affair. Still, why does a stolen kiss with his faux fiancée conjure such tempting visions of romance?
As if being falsely accused weren’t mortifying enough, Phoebe North is now the talk of the town. And while she knows Leo did the honorable thing to protect her reputation, she can’t help but long for more. It would be an impossible match given their unequal stations, and Leo has made his view of marriage quite clear. Yet his kiss and flirtatious ways say something else. If only she could persuade him of how delightful it would be to thumb their noses at convention—and become fools for love.
About the Author
Lynne Connolly was born in Leicester, England, and lived in her family’s cobbler’s shop with her parents and sister. She loves all periods of history, but her favorites are the Tudor and Georgian eras. She loves doing research and creating a credible story with people who lived in past ages. In addition to her Emperors of London series and The Shaws series, she writes several historical, contemporary, and paranormal romance series. Visit her on the web at LynneConnolly.com, read her blog at LynneConnolly.blogspot.co.uk, and find her on the social media platforms below.
