“This delightful Victorian romp will teach you much more history than you thought you ever wanted to know.”
—Meritorious Mysteries
It is 1896, and newlyweds Charles and Kate Sheridan have established their residence at Kate’s ancestral Georgian home, Bishop’s Keep, where Kate plans to devote herself to her writing and Charles to the responsibilities of the landed gentry.
The couple agree to host an automobile exhibition and balloon race at Bishop’s Keep. These are early days in the British and European automotive industry, and the race will pit petrol-powered, steam-powered, and electric automobiles against one another to see which performs best. The era’s foremost investors and inventors attend, among them Henry Royce and the young (and ill-fated) Charles Rolls.
But speed, competition, and money prove to be more explosive than gasoline—and for one automobile builder, more deadly.
Praise for Robin Paige Victorian Mysteries
“I read it with enjoyment . . . I found myself burning for the injustices of it and caring what happened to the people.”
–Anne Perry
“Eminently satisfying… intricate mystery. Delightful pair of sleuths. A wonderful sense of atmosphere and place.”
—Gothic Journal
“Good stories with a nice feel for the period. Intriguing and intelligent.”
—Mysterious Women
“An original and intelligent sleuth… a vivid recreation of late Victorian England.”
—Jean Hager
“This delightful Victorian romp will teach you much more history than you thought you ever wanted to know.”
—Meritorious Mysteries
About the Authors
Robin Paige is the pseudonym of husband-and-wife team Susan Wittig Albert and Bill Albert. They are also the coauthors of more than sixty novels for young adults. They wrote the Robin Paige series over a twelve-year period: 1994-2006. (Photo 1998)
Charles Rolls, in his balloon ‘Midget’ (c. 1900)
Resources
Read about the first-ever auto race.
For the real story of how Rolls and Royce met, look here.
Charles Rolls made the first round-trip flight across the English Channel in June, 1910. He was killed when the tail broke off his airplane just a month later, becoming the first Briton to die in an aeronautical accident. Read about the Channel flight here.
