Showing results by author "Sara Fraser" in All Categories

It is 1827, and in the town of Redditch life is harsh for the poor. When a young serving woman is found drowned in the canal, her widowed mother believes her daughter has been murdered and appeals to the Parish Constable, Thomas Potts, for help. Physically weak and bookish by nature, Tom Potts is to many people an object of derision. But concealed behind his timid façade is intelligence, experience and a fierce passion for justice.

July 1829. When a female corpse dressed in male clothing is discovered lying in a haystack in the Worcestershire countryside, rumour and superstition abound. For the sighting of a man in white robes fleeing from the scene leads to suspicion that the Devil's Monk is responsible for the crime. According to local legend, this vengeful apparition appears at intervals to molest and kill.

A raving, bedraggled girl is found sheltering in a barn near the Parish of Tardebigge in Worcestershire. Then the decomposing body of a small boy is unearthed by poachers in a nearby wood. Constable Thomas Potts is called upon to investigate both cases, which appear to be connected to a wagon-load of children known to have been abducted from the Poorhouse. Meanwhile Thomas’ engagement to buxom barmaid Amy Danks is threated by his widowed mother’s hatred of his sweetheart, and by the many duty calls upon his time.

“Matrimony. An Officer of the Honourable East India Company is greatly desirous of finding a soul-mate to share his life and fortune". Lonely spinster Phoebe Creswell responds to an advertisement in the Worcester Herald, but are the outwardly charming Major Christophe de Langlois and his companion, the Reverend Geraint Winward, really who and what they seem?

Thirtysomething Leigh Fortune never thought she’d make it this far. Emerging from the ashes of a traumatic childhood, she’s managed to plant her flag on Terra Normal. But under the surface she’s unsure—of herself, of her fiancée, of everything. A letter informing her of her estranged mother’s death tips her from uncertainty into emotional upheaval and sends her on a journey that will take her from the dunes of Cape Cod to Las Vegas and back.

The Otis, an inconsequential river—not the Hudson—flows through Wattsville, a small city a few hours north, but a universe away from the real City, capital C. You might think the everyday people who live here, in this land of scarce opportunity, are also inconsequential. Until you meet them.