Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose - (Marion Lane Mystery) by T a Willberg (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

"What a delight... I found myself so drawn into this world of peculiar crimes that finishing the last page left me disoriented, requiring an extra beat to flash forward and rejoin the current century." - Sarah Weinman, New York Times Book Review

The envelope was tied with three delicate silk ribbons: "One of the new recruits is not to be trusted..."

It's 1959 and a new killer haunts the streets of London, having baffled Scotland Yard. The newspapers call him The Florist because of the rose he brands on his victims. The police have turned yet again to the Inquirers at Miss Brickett's for assistance, and second-year Marion Lane is assigned the case.

But she's already dealing with a mystery of her own, having received an unsigned letter warning her that one of the three new recruits should not be trusted. She dismisses the letter at first, focusing on The Florist case, but her informer seems to be one step ahead, predicting what will happen before it does. But when a fellow second-year Inquirer is murdered, Marion takes matters into her own hands and must come face-to-face with her informer--who predicted the murder--to find out everything they know. Until then, no one at Miss Brickett's is safe and everyone is a suspect.

With brilliant twists and endless suspense, all set within the dazzling walls and hidden passageways of Miss Brickett's, Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose is a deliciously fun new historical mystery you won't be able to put down.

Review Quotes

"What a delight to discover T. A. Willberg's MARION LANE AND THE DEADLY ROSE.... Willberg spins her narrative with a striking sense of verve. I found myself so drawn into this world of peculiar crimes that finishing the last page left me disoriented, requiring an extra beat to flash forward and rejoin the current century." - Sarah Weinman, New York Times Book Review

"A delicious surprise...Marion Lane offers echoes of alternate pasts and futures, as in Stuart Turton's The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and of Jasper Fforde's Early Riser. Caleb Carr's The Alienist is longer and grimmer--so Willberg has by contrast created a compact and satisfying crime novel rooted in a protagonist who's both naive and stubborn, making it much easier for readers to self-identify with the perils Marion faces. A highly satisfying final action scene ramps up the tension in maneuvers that make the book a true page-turner." - New York Journal of Books

"This is the most fun I've had with a book this year. Every page is a delight, the worldbuilding is wonderful, and the mystery got its hooks into me from the first chapter. This is what would happen if a trainee James Bond was asked to solve an Agatha Christie mystery, and it's brilliant." - Stuart Turton, bestselling author of THE 7 1/2 DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE