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Series

Victorian Mysteries

The Victorian Mysteries follow photographer Sarah Bain and her unconventional investigative partners through London from the Whitechapel murders of 1888 to the Thames torso case of 1891. Sarah’s camera gives the group access to crime scenes and evidence at a time when forensic photography, popular newspapers and criminal profiling are still developing.

The cases involve kidnapping, execution, disputed identity, spiritualism, public entertainment and serial murder. Running through the seven books are Sarah’s hidden role in the Ripper investigation, her relationship with police officer Thomas Barrett, and the unresolved accusation against her father. Each solution therefore threatens to expose the secret that made the investigators possible.

Reading order

Books in this series (7 books)

A Mortal Likeness cover

#2 – A Mortal Likeness

Laura Joh Rowland

London, 1889. Sarah Bain, Hugh Staunton and Mick O’Reilly operate a private detective agency while keeping secret their role in resolving the Ripper case. Banker Sir Gerald Mariner hires them to recover his missing infant after a photograph taken during an unrelated surveillance job reveals a…

Portrait of Peril cover

#5 – Portrait of Peril

Laura Joh Rowland

London, October 1890. Sarah Bain’s wedding to Detective Sergeant Barrett is interrupted when the body of spirit photographer Charles Firth is discovered in the church crypt. One of Firth’s plates appears to show a pale figure attacking him, encouraging claims that a ghost committed the crime.…

Garden of Sins cover

#6 – Garden of Sins

Laura Joh Rowland

London, November 1890. After a train crash, Sarah Bain Barrett and her husband discover a passenger who was strangled before the collision. Their search for the woman’s identity leads to Cremorne Gardens, a riverside pleasure ground combining theatre, carnival acts and displays of human difference. A…

River of Fallen Angels cover

#7 – River of Fallen Angels

Laura Joh Rowland

London, April 1891. A woman’s severed torso washes onto the Thames bank, reviving fear of an unsolved serial murderer. Sarah Bain Barrett investigates with Hugh Staunton, Mick O’Reilly, her husband Thomas and her reporter sister Sally, while psychologist Joshua Lewes applies the new practice of criminal…