Showing results by author "Colleen Gleason" in All Categories

Jacqueline Finch's lovely little bookstore is a special one. Not only is it brimming with books and has a cozy tea shop, but it comes staffed with two unique employees: Mrs. Hudson, Sherlock Holmes's landlady, and Mrs. Danvers, the creepy and disagreeable housekeeper from Rebecca. Despite the fact that other literary characters tend to pop out of books on a daily basis, Jacqueline loves her life. But just when a holiday weekend and the beginning of tourist season commences, Jacqueline discovers that someone has been breaking into the shop at night.

Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes never meant to get into the family business. But when you're the sister of Bram and the niece of Sherlock, vampire hunting and mystery solving are in your blood. And so, when two society girls go missing, there's no one more qualified to investigate. Now, the fierce Evaline and the logical Mina must resolve their rivalry, in order to navigate the advances of not just one, but three mysterious gentlemen, and solve a murder with only one clue: the strange Egyptian scarab.

After the Affair of the Clockwork Scarab, Evaline Stoker and Mina Holmes are eager to help Princess Alix with a new case. Seventeen-year-old Willa Aston is obsessed with spiritual mediums, convinced she is speaking with her mother from beyond the grave. What seems like a case of spiritualist fraud quickly devolves into something far more menacing: Someone is trying to make Willa "appear lunatic", using an innocent-looking spiritglass to control her. The list of clues piles up: an unexpected murder, a gang of pickpockets, and the return of vampires to London.

Jacqueline Finch is a lifelong book lover, which is why it was a literal gift from the Universe when she inherited Three Tomes Bookshop. But she's had a few adjustments to make along the way, including the fact that her bookshop seems to be a haven for literary characters to come alive and to stick their noses into things that aren't any of their business. And then there are the three old ladies down the street, whose resemblance to Macbeth's Witches Three cannot be ignored.

At forty-eight, Jacqueline Finch has a nice, easy life with few responsibilities: she's been a librarian in Chicago for twenty-five years and she's just coasting along. That is, until the Universe (helped by three old crones) has other ideas. All at once, Jacqueline's staid (and boring) life is upended, and the next thing she knows, she's heading off to Button Cove to start a new life as the owner of Three Tomes Bookshop.

After narrowly escaping from Rome, Lady Victoria Gardella returns to London, where not even sunrise can stop a vampire's carnage . . . Ruining Victoria's homecoming, a vampire stalks the streets of London—during the daylight. Not only is Victoria unable to detect the vampire with her heightened senses, but she's being framed as the prime suspect behind the killings. Meanwhile, her heart is still divided between the enigmatic Sebastian Vioget and her fellow slayer Max Pesaro.

As Rome prepares for its Carnivale, the new leader of the city's vampire hunters, Lady Victoria Gardella Grantworth de Lacy, must prove herself as never before. For, in order to gain access to the secrets of a legendary alchemist, Rome's vampires have allied themselves with creatures as evil and bloodthirsty as they are. Reluctantly, Victoria must turn to the enigmatic Sebastian Vioget for help—just as Max Pesaro arrives to help his fellow slayers, no matter what the price.

Spring is in full swing in lakefront Button Cove, and Jacqueline is embracing her new life—her friends, her new home, the crones down the street, and especially the detective with a hot-Viking vibe. It's not half bad. But when an old book falls off the shelf, signaling the arrival of yet another literary character Jacqueline has to deal with, and strange accidents and thefts begin to happen in Button Cove, Jacqueline once again finds herself in a big, fat mess.

Directly descended from the very first vampire hunter in the Gardella family, Victoria knows she must continue the lineage so humanity will have protectors against the undead. While Sebastian Vioget appears to both the perfect warrior and lover to ensure the Gardella Legacy, Victoria cannot forget Max Pesaro—the former slayer still haunted by the vampire queen Lilith's obsession with him. But it is Lilith's obsession that may save all of humanity.

Lady Victoria Gardella Grantworth de Lacy has been a vampire slayer for just over a year, balancing her life as a peer of Society with the dangerous role that takes her out on moonlit streets, stake in hand. She has learned brutal and heartbreaking lessons about the sacrifices that must be made in order to save humanity from the evil that secretly preys upon it, but she has not wavered in her vow to fight on. Now, in Italy, a powerful vampire is amassing the power to control the souls of the dead.

Just as Lady Victoria Gardella is preparing for her debut into London Society, she learns the shocking and impossible truth about her family legacy: she is one of the very few who has the power—and responsibility—to hunt and slay the evil vampires that infest the city. With infinite questions (where will she hide her stake? how will she know a vampire when she encounters one? how will she sneak out at night?), Victoria agrees to shoulder the responsibility and carry the stake—despite the societal restrictions and expectations of her as a female.