Showing results by author "C.J. Archer" in All Categories

When Gavin travels to Edinburgh with his good friend Oscar Barratt, he’s eager to acquire a centuries-old book on witchcraft for the soon-to-open Glass Library. Even with ruthless railroad magnate John J. Defoe in the bidding, the victory comes easily. Perhaps too easily. Hours later, the book is stolen. A single clue links the theft to the recent abduction of two women, both magicians.

The medical profession’s faith in electric shock therapies for treating female nervous conditions is shaken after a patient dies while connected to one such device. Harry Armitage is hired by the doctor arrested for her murder, and he invites Cleo to help him uncover the truth. After all, the doctor is the same one who tried—and failed—to treat Cleo’s aunt. As they dig deeper, it becomes apparent the doctor has failed other patients too, and those patients’ loved ones want revenge.

December 1899. After the death of her beloved grandmother, Cleopatra Fox moves into the luxury hotel owned by her estranged uncle in the hopes of putting hardship and loneliness behind her. But the poisoning of a guest on Christmas eve throws her new life, and the hotel, into chaos. Cleo quickly realizes no one can be trusted, not Scotland Yard and especially not the hotel’s charming assistant manager.

India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who’ll accept her–an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he’s ill.

An ancient family diary. A timely prophecy. An epic conclusion. As Sylvia prepares to meet Gabe’s parents for the first time, the last thing she needs is for her long-lost father to cause trouble. While his answers to her questions finally bring clarity, they also usher in danger. But that's not all her elusive father brings into Sylvia's life. His treasured gift of an ancient journal passed down through the generations, connects her to the past with its mystical spells and captivating stories.

With the social season just around the corner, the women in Cleo’s family are having new outfits made by the most sought-after designer in the city. Madame Poitiers is bold, self-absorbed, and not French, despite her claims. When Cleo stumbles on her dead body in the salon, she is in a unique position to gather clues and speak to witnesses. But she doesn’t expect to find Harry Armitage’s business card in Madame’s possession. What is the alluring private detective’s connection to the victim? And why is he avoiding Cleo?

The weekend was supposed to be an enjoyable time with her family at the neo-Gothic manor of Lord and Lady Kershaw, but when the gamekeeper is murdered, Cleo can’t rest until the killer is caught. As a witness herself, she’s frustrated with the incompetence of the local police who lay the blame on a man who conveniently disappeared. When she realizes their ineptitude is a result of Lord Kershaw’s influence, she focuses her investigation on the earl and his family, against the wishes of her uncle.

Finding an old manuscript in the attic has always been a fantasy of Sylvia’s. She just never expected the fantasy to come true, or for it to lead her to answers about her mysterious family.

A wealthy businessman with a reputation for taking risks rose from the slums to the height of success. But success comes at a price, especially when it’s achieved at the expense of others.

Librarian Sylvia Ashe knows nothing about her past, having grown up without a father and a mother who refused to discuss him. When she stumbles upon a diary that suggests she's descended from magicians, she's skeptical. After all, magicians are special, and she's just an ordinary woman who loves books. She seeks answers from a member of the most prominent family of magicians, but she quickly learns that finding the truth won't be easy, especially when he turns out to be as artless as her, and more compelling and dangerous than books.

Cleo’s holiday with her family to the seaside resort town of Brighton is everything she hoped it would be…until she receives a blackmail note. The blackmailer demands Cleo help her or a story revealing Cleo’s investigating will appear in the newspaper. With her uncle warning her to keep her detecting activities private, Cleo agrees to meet the blackmailer when they return to London. But when the woman is seen getting on the train but not off, Cleo grows concerned.

With her sharpened magical senses, Sylvia recognizes invisible writing while cataloging an obscure book for the library. She’s shocked to discover the message, written many years earlier, pleaded for help. She’s even more shocked to discover the author of the message was married to a paper magician. Could there be a connection to Sylvia’s father? With a magical mystery on her hands, Sylvia engages the help of Gabe Glass, and together they follow the clues to the location of two hidden ledgers that implicate a very dangerous individual in an illegal bookmaking scheme.

Cleo is hired by the housekeeper at a Mayfair residence after the police rule the sudden death of the butler was the result of natural causes. Not convinced by the verdict, she wants Cleo to prove foul play was involved. Considering he was acting mysteriously around some of the guests, and they were equally mysterious when they saw him, murder is a possibility. When the investigation leads Cleo to another decades-old murder and the sudden disappearance of the primary suspect, she’s even more determined to uncover the truth.

When a set of bound manuscripts written on magician-made paper is brought to the Glass Library, Sylvia and the professor send the owner away. After all, the library collects books about magic, not containing it. But the murder of the bookbinder who bound them sees the books returned to the library, along with Gabe in his role as consultant for Scotland Yard. When his investigation uncovers a link to Sylvia’s past, they’re even more determined to find the murderer. But they’re not the only ones searching for answers.

A sordid scandal rocks the Glass household and threatens to ruin Matt's family unless he can suppress it. But after word gets out, and a rare magical coronet is stolen, he and India find themselves scrambling to recover the heirloom and suppress the gossip before reputations are ruined. To make matters worse, someone is sending threatening letters to the magicians of London, stirring up trouble between the artless and magicians. Tensions are rising, but India and Matt choose not to investigate - until the author of the letters is assaulted.

This boxed set contains the first three books in C. J. Archer's popular Ministry of Curiosities series. Titles in the set include The Last Necromancer, Her Majesty's Necromancer, and Beyond the Grave. Description of The Last Necromancer: For five years, Charlotte (Charlie) Holloway has lived as a boy in the slums. But when one theft too many gets her arrested, her only means of escape lies with a dead man.

Cole’s heart is dark. He’s a mystery, even to those closest to him in the Assassins Guild. All anyone really knows for sure is that he’s ruthless, grim, and cares little for his own life. So when he loses his memory during an attack and thinks himself a naive 18-year-old again, no one can really believe the transformation. But as his memory returns, so do the nightmares and the dark reality of who he has become.

Summer has arrived along with a plethora of social events that keep Cleo and her cousins busy. Between balls, dinners, concerts and picnics, they attend the final match between two proud polo clubs. When the winning team’s captain is found murdered in the stables, everyone assumes the opposing team’s captain killed him. After all, he was found holding the murder weapon, and everyone knows they hated each other.

To find the one man who can fix the magic in Matt's watch, he and India are led to a convent where the nuns will do anything to keep their secrets private. Including murder? Matt and India must uncover the truth behind the disappearance of the mother superior and two babies given to her care many years ago. But sometimes, the truth is painful and its exposure can have deadly consequences.

The Goldsmith’s Conspiracy is the final book in the best-selling Glass and Steele series. Tensions between the artless and magicians are flaring, but India and Matt discover someone is deliberately fuelling the flames. Relentlessly pursuing his own agenda, Lord Coyle employs the former master of the Watchmaker’s Guild to make trouble and be a thorn in India’s side. But India has the ear of the government now, and her own political influence is growing, something which pushes Lord Coyle over the edge.