Victorian romance

Beautiful muse, Miss Sapphire Reubens, the inspiration for her lover's latest art exhibition, is missing – items of her clothing found in the river. Worryingly, Miss Matilda Hayward and her fellow writer for the Women’s Journal, Miss Alice Doran, enjoyed a preview of the inspired work featuring Miss Reubens immersed in water. Was it a death portrait?

When another two rival artists are found murdered and posed in the manner of their painting, Matilda and her new beau, Detective Thomas Ashdown, fear the artist's inspiration may have come from ill means. There is mystery, passion and love afoot!

Matilda Hayward is determined to have a career, after all, it is 1888! While reporting for the Women’s Journal newspaper, Matilda is sent to cover the visiting ‘Freak Show’ and to interview Mrs Anna Tufton, a giantess. During the interview, the giantess slips a note to Matilda begging for help to her escape the show she is forced to do by her husband. But when the giantess’s husband is found murdered; the giantess is a likely suspect.

Matilda enlists the help of her lawyer brother, Amos, to prove the giantess is no killer and to free her from a life of exploitation. But close family friend, Detective Thomas Ashdown – who has feelings for Matilda having known her since childhood – would prefer Matilda was nowhere near his murder case. There is mystery, danger, and love afoot!

Miss Phoebe Astin of The Economic Undertaker has always spoken with spirits as they leave this life on their way to the next, so a visit from a senior nurse asking to unburden herself was business as usual. But when the nurse's confession reveals she was frightened to death by a doll from her past, Phoebe decides it is time to tell the man who has her heart, Detective Harland Stone. Aided by her brothers, Julius and Ambrose - or hindered as the case might be as they bury bodies and interfere in her potential relationship - Phoebe is challenged to find peace and justice for the dearly departed. For the Astin family, being dead is no excuse for letting crime go unpunished.

Miss Phoebe Astin of The Economic Undertaker found herself charmed by the recently deceased perfume salesman, Mr Edward 'Teddy' Tate, as were many of his former clients. Not unaccustomed to speaking with spirits as they leave this life on their way to the next, the debonair salesman had two requests of Phoebe: to investigate his death, which he believed was not an accident and to send his love to three ladies whom he had been romancing. Phoebe passes the information on to her beau, Detective Harland Stone, and when two of Teddy's love interests are found dead, the detective gets a whiff of a crime afoot. Aided by her brothers, Julius and Ambrose, and her dear friends, the Vexed Vixens, Phoebe is doing her best to grant the dearly departed justice. After all, for the Astin family, being dead is no excuse for letting crime go unpunished (even if he was romancing three ladies, the cad!)

Miss Phoebe Astin is quite accustomed to speaking with spirits as they leave this life on their way to the next. As the mortician at The Economic Undertaker, Phoebe and her brothers, Julius and Ambrose, find themselves inundated with victims from a ferry disaster on the river. But when one of the victims, Miss Elizabeth Rowe, appears to Phoebe and insists she did not die on the ferry, but her killer hopes it will appear as such, Phoebe is compelled to help. Passing the information on to her beau, Detective Harland Stone, it soon turns out all is not as it appears, especially when photographs taken by Phoebe’s friend, Kate, tell a different story. It is a time of flurry for the Astin family, who believe being dead is no excuse for letting a crime go unpunished.