More Ash and Juliana!

 

The second Ash and Juliana book is out this week!

Here's the blurb:

From glittering ballrooms to London’s dark underbelly, Ash & Juliana are back on the hunt for a murderer in the second installment of this thrilling historical mystery series from L.C. Sharp.

The London ton protect their own. Even when it comes to murder.

“There’s been an incident.”

In the finer circles of 1749 London, incident is apparently the polite way to describe discovering a body with a gruesome wound and no sign of the killer. But for newlyweds Lady Juliana and Sir Edmund “Ash” Ashendon, it’s a chance to track down the culprit and right a wrong—something they are both intimately familiar with.

Indeed, it is the only thing they are intimately familiar with. For the moment.

Though their marriage may be one of convenience, there’s nothing convenient about learning the victim has ties to a name from their past: the dreaded Raven. And the Raven isn’t the only danger they face. The aristocracy protects its own, and in London’s darkest corners, no one wants to be unmasked.

With Juliana’s life on the line, time is running out for Ash to find the killer before their marriage comes to an inconveniently bloody end.

Ash & Juliana

Book 1: The Wedding Night Affair
Book 2: The Sign of the Raven

The reviews are astonishingly good, and I'm thrilled to bits. To be honest, I was thrilled while I was writing it, because I know this series is one of the best things I've done. Everything is coalescing in this series - my love of the period, my love of the characters and the work I've done on this slow-burn of a series.

Slow burn to you, the reader, that is. I wrote the first version a few years ago, and my agent helped me hone it, but I already had a long vision for this series. I know where it is going to go, for the most part.

The characters, Ash, Juliana, their family and their friends and colleagues have a lot of story to come. In this book one situation is resolved, but another rears its head, and there will be a lot of trouble to come. Ash and Juliana have to stand firm to overcome it all.

In this book, Juliana confronts her parents, Ash confronts his feelings for his wife of convenience and they meet new friends, and allies. Meet Dr. Parrish, a surgeon who also lectures at the only surgeon's college at the time. A slave for the first few months of his life, Dr. Parrish is clever, modest and harshly kind. You might even love him as much as I do!

The enigmatic and dangerous Duke of Abercrombie makes an appearance, as does the journalist Ransom, who sticks Ash with a new nickname. He's set to make a fortune off his recounting of Ash and Juliana's exploits. Their Dr. Watson, you might say. And his sister, his guilty secret, the woman who made a new life for herself after escaping her abusive husband.

Not forgetting the scoundrelly duo of the child Col, and Cutty Jack, pickpocket, con man, and link-boy, who is heading for greater things. But not quite yet.

They're all there. After a murder of a man in the highest ranks of society, they all pitch in to help solve the crime, along with the king of London's underworld, The Raven. Ash learns more about The Raven, a secret that will rock his world.

I base the books on a real incident in history, this time the rehearsal of a grand fireworks show for which Handel wrote the music. The rehearsal went brilliantly (apart from the murder, which is my contribution to the story), but the real event, a week later, was a farce. Rain and fireworks don't do well together.

Anyway, here is the link to the book, and I really hope you enjoy it! The Sign of The Raven at Carina Press