“Robin Paige provides fans with an excellent historical mystery that will have them searching for the previous novels in this special, one-of-a-kind series.”
—Midwest Book Review
Lord and Lady Sheridan (Charles is now Baron of Somersworth) have taken a house for a few quiet weeks in the late summer of 1897, in the lovely sea-coast village of Rottingdean.
Long known as Smugglers’ Village, the hamlet sits on a labyrinth of ancient tunnels. When the body of a coast guardsman is pulled out of the Channel, Kate and Charles suspect that the town is still plying the illicit trade–contraband smuggling–that it practiced the century before, when smuggling was the only source of income for villages along the south coast. With the help of author Rudyard Kipling (who is just beginning his novel, Kim), they discover that the old tunnels, long thought abandoned, now harbor new and frightening secrets. And that the famous Rottingdean windmill is being used to send signals to a waiting ship.
But is it just smuggling? With Germany just across the Channel, rumors of war in all the newspapers, and fears of German invasion spreading across England, it isn’t any wonder that espionage and treachery are suspected.
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
“Dualities abound in Paige’s mix of real and fictional characters…This adventure is just as much fun as the others have been.”
—Publisher’s Weekly
“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
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)
Resources
For a brief history of Rottingdean’s smuggling past, read this article.
Read about Erskine Childers’ immensely popular invasion novel of 1903, The Riddle of the Sands.
Visit (virtually) The Elms, Kipling’s home fr0m 1897 to 1902.
