The Widow's Secret: A Bella Wallis Mystery (Bella Wallis Mysteries)

Meet Bella Wallis—a charismatic Victorian widow with a sideline in sensationalist novels, and a fierce determination to seek revenge in print for what can never be achieved in real life Bella Wallis is a respectable society woman with a secret identity: in an office buried deep within the seedy backstreets of London, she writes sensationalist novels under the pen name Henry Ellis Margam, exposing the scoundrels that litter high society. So when a crested cigar case is found near the body of a murdered prostitute, Bella and her friends are determined to trace the murderer and write a mystery that will avenge the poor girl's untimely death. But the owner of the cigar case is a dangerous—and rich—man who has already destroyed the lives of others who have crossed him. Will Bella see justice done, or will she meet the same fate as so many of her characters? The first in the Bella Wallis series of mysteries takes readers from London to Paris, from the highest of society to the lowest of the low. It is an entertaining, effervescent romp and a wonderful introduction to this most charismatic of sleuths.