The Secrets of Wishtide

Meet Laetitia Rodd, the widow of an archdeacon, who is living in reduced circumstances in 1850 Hampstead, England. She supports herself by doing discreet private investigation work for her brother, a successful London criminal barrister. Her sibling introduces Laetitia to Sir James Calderstone, a wealthy industrialist who asks her to investigate an "unsuitable" woman whom his son wants to marry. The goal is to prevent the match. Posing as the new governess for the two Calderstone daughters, she travels to Wishtide, Sir James's Lincolnshire estate. Laetitia's probe grows increasingly complicated as corpses amass and eventually Sir James's son is accused of murder. Rodd is then engaged to find proof of his innocence. Readers will find themselves immersed in 19th-century English society, from grand houses to dockside taverns, in a story that draws heavily from the work of Charles Dickens. Saunders's protagonist sheds a sympathetic light on the plight of women in the rigid moral climate of Victorian England.