Tessa Arlen Historical Mysteries Provide a Alluring Escape Into the Past

Lucy Duff Gordon has always had a talent with design.

As a little girl, the dresses she made for her dolls were the envy of her friends. When her wealthy husband deserts her and their daughter, Lucy is desperate to survive. It won’t be easy.

Women aren’t meant to succeed on their own. But she’s determined to claim her destiny in the fashion world. Then her fate takes another turn when she ends up being one of the 706 people to survive the sinking of the Titanic.

The disaster will impact every aspect of her life. From her career, her second marriage, and her legacy. Only Lucy won’t let go of what she’s worked so hard to earn. No matter what.

When Poppy Redfern’s family house and farmland is requisitioned by the War Office, Poppy becomes the village’s new Air Raid Warden.

She spends her night calming fears about the “Friendly Invasion”. But when two popular women are found strangled after dating American servicemen, Poppy realizes her town is about to get torn apart by suspicion over the murders.

Partnering with a charming American pilot, Poppy launches her own investigation. But to catch a killer, Poppy has to lay a trap.

And that could make her the next victim.

Far from her small hometown, Poppy is immersed in her new job as a scriptwriter for the London Crown Film Unit. And all her hard work is about to pay off when she’s finally given her first solo project.

She has to make a fifteen-minute film about the Air Transport Auxiliary, the female civilian group trained to pilot planes all over Britain. They’re known as the Attagirls, and Poppy can’t wait to meet them.

But when one of their best pilots die in an accident, and then another follows, Poppy knows something else is going on.

With her fighter-pilot boyfriend, they soon realize that someone with a vendetta is intent on grounding the Attagirls permanently.

Marion Crawford served as royal governess for more than sixteen years. She can remember every moment she spent with the young Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose.

But things get difficult as the girls turn into young women. Particularly when Elizabeth falls in love with Prince Philip of Greece. No one thinks he would be a suitable husband for the future Queen.

But Marion knows the power of love as she’s risked her own happiness to stay in service to the Queen. And when she finally believes she’ll receive the Crown’s blessing to marry, she experiences a betrayal so severe it shatters the bond with the royal family forever.

The annual summer costume ball is the highlight of Lady Monfort’s year. She happily attends to all the details, looking forward to one of the most significant social events of the year.

But when her husband’s degenerate nephew is found murdered, the ball is ruined. Even worse, her son is a potential suspect. With the help of her pragmatic housekeeper, Lady Montfort sets out to prove her son’s innocence and find a killer.

First up: find a young woman who vanished the night of the murder who might be able to clear her son’s name.

But as they investigate, they stumble on the secret lives of close friends, servants, and even family only to find a murderer hiding in plain sight.

Hermoine Kingsley is hosting a gathering to celebrate Winston Churchill’s 39^th birthday. Lady Montfort is thrilled when she receives an invitation. It’s a gorgeous gathering filled with some of Britain’s oldest families.

But when dinner ends, they discover one of the guests has been murdered. Lady Montfort calls her pragmatic housekeeper, Mrs. Jackson, and the two women retrace the steps of suspects throughout the home.

It’s a race against time as they try to untangle the web of secrecy surrounding London society to find a killer and stop them from striking again.

When a cook is accused of poisoning a breakfast kedgeree, she turns to Mrs. Jackson for help. It won’t be easy, but Lady Montfort promises to clear the cook’s name.

She contrives an invitation to Hyde Castle, the home of a self-made millionaire where the murder occurred where the group of amateur rose breeders were gathering.

For a group of mild-mannered individuals, the Rose society is hiding a cunning villain. But in the middle of their investigation, the world is shocked by a European assassination.

Any day Britain will declare war. If Lady Montfort can’t find the killer before then, the group will disperse and the killer will get away with murder.

The world is at war. Determined to do her part, Lady Montfort convinces her husband to offer the family’s dower house to the War Office.

Mrs. Jackson takes over the space and acts as the hospital’s quartermaster. Despite the hospital’s success, many feel that it’s filled with cowards.

When a Captain is found in the vegetable garden with his head bashed in, Lady Montfort and Mrs. Jackson know they have to find the culprit before the War Office shuts the hospital down.

But to do that, they have to figure out who would want to murder a war hero with amnesia.