Dark Remains: A Maggie Power Adventure (Maggie Power #1)

ALL THAT GLITTERS - A Maggie Power Adventure (Maggie Power #2)

If you enjoyed Dark Remains, why not try ALL THAT GLITTERS!

Here is the opening chapter & blurb:

Rescued from the brutal streets of Victorian London, 14-year-old Maggie Power finds herself under the guardianship of one of London's first detectives, Samuel Blake. Living as a companion to Blake's recently widowed sister, Emily, she finds herself drawn into the world of Blake's criminal investigations.

Her older companion, Emily, becomes increasingly unhappy with her growing relationship with Blake and, as she sees it, her unfeminine interest in the dark and violent world he inhabits.

However, when a rich and powerful banker goes missing, presumed murdered, Maggie secretly aids Blake during the initial stages of the investigation. Once Emily discovers that she has gone against her advice, and is once more aiding Blake, Emily's and Maggie's relationship reaches breaking point.

Amid this domestic turmoil, Maggie seeks to escape the restrictions imposed upon her and with Blake's permission embarks on a secret mission to discover the fate of the missing man, spying on behalf of a police force which knows nothing of her existence.
 
As she and Detective Sergeant Blake move closer to discovering the fate of the missing banker, they uncover a world of greed, deception and murder.

ALL THAT GLITTERS is a historical mystery set in London during the 1840s.

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Part 1

September 1842

“But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!”

Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

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Chapter 1

I blushed whenever he referred to me as his assistant.

Even now, as I begin to set these words down upon the page, after an interval of five years or more, I can still feel a crimson heat rush to my face.

All very silly, I know.

At first, he would only use that particular word when he thought nobody else could overhear, or else we were alone. It became our secret, for a time at least.

I’m sure it was meant as a silly joke, initially.

Back then his sister Emily – my latest and most attentive guardian – was unaware of my unpublicised role as Detective Sergeant Blake’s ‘assistant’. Neither, to my knowledge, was the Metropolitan Police.

As extraordinary as it all may sound, as the Summer of 1842 faded into Autumn, I began assisting one of London’s first and, without doubt, finest detectives. Over the course of those months, I was to find myself engaged in one of the most perplexing mysteries of the time. A story, which to this day, has still to be fully revealed to the world at large.

But more of that case later. First I must tell you how I became his assistant.

It’s true Blake had many avenues of enquiry, many people whom he could seek out during his investigations: ex-jailbirds; individuals known to him who still tread the faint line between legal and illegal enterprises; or a snitch who required money for his next quart of gin.

And then there was me.

Blake first called upon my assistance shortly after Jack disappeared. Back then I was still furious with him for leaving, for running away, as I saw it. Emily had placed great trust in all three of us, when she took us under her wing, and gave us a home, and Jack’s decision to run away was hurtful to all.