BOOK #1

London, 1820. Lady Mary Cavindish has scandalized society by opening her Minerva Club, a place where women can escape the constraints of propriety. But when a prominent member is found strangled inside its elegant walls, the club's future teeters on the brink of ruin. Already under siege by a moral crusade decrying her establishment as a den of vice, Lady Mary knows this murder could spell its doom. Refusing to let her creation perish, Lady Mary launches her own inquiry, probing the dark secrets of her members and the ton's elite. Frustrating her efforts is the arrival of a Bow Street Runner, a by-the-book investigator whose moral code doesn't want the involvement of an eccentric widow in his case. Complicating the matter, as the investigation deepens, so do his feelings for the daughter of one of the prime suspects, a liaison that blurs the lines between duty and desire. As they search for answers, Lady Mary and her fellow sleuths uncover a tapestry of betrayal, envy, and revenge. When scandal surrounds her.