Hot off the heels of the paperback edition of Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder last month, we are thrilled that its sequel Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose, is publishing with Park Row and Trapeze this week.

Nothing says mystery more than a secret underground detective agency in 1950’s London where the inquisitive Marion Lane is learning to question everyone and everything around her. Faced with yet another murder and a warning not to trust one of her fellow colleagues, it is up to her to uncover which of the new recruits may not be all they seem…

T.A. Willberg received some glorious praise for the first instalment of the series when it published in 2020:

“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, author of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle

“Marion Lane And The Midnight Murder crackles with invention and surprise—the wondrous gadgetry, the moody settings, the endearing heroine and the struggles she’s endured—and Willberg weaves it all together around a perfectly puzzling locked-room whodunnit.”

— Matthew Sullivan, author of Midnight At The Bright Ideas Bookstore

“A delightfully stylish romp through London’s foggy streets and secret tunnels, complete with a tantalizing, steampunk-flavored mystery. Willberg has conjured a sharp-witted and sympathetic heroine, a worthy match for the sinister forces and shadowy organizations arrayed against her. Delicious fun!”

— Helene Wecker, New York Times bestselling author of The Golem And The Jinni

And this follow up is guaranteed to thrill readers just as much. It’s not easy to unite cosy charm with looming suspense but T. A. Willberg does it beautifully. Here’s a little clue as to what awaits…

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 pause.  

 

Congratulations on your second publication day of the year, Tessa – 2022 has started with a bang!