Elizabeth Black, a charming and beautiful young woman, is Headmistress of a school for girls. She is also the author of Silver Fork novels that appeal to proper society women. On the side, though, she is the secret author of a Penny Dreadful series. Books that appeal to a much wider, and often lower class audience of readers. She writes these using a male pseudonym, Charles King, and this series is wildly popular.So popular, that the reigning king of the Penny Dreadfuls, Fletcher Walker, is becoming more than a little alarmed. The reason for this worry is that he and a group of other Penny Dreadful authors belong to a secret society and one that uses its profits to do good. That is, to help those unfortunate urchins who live on the streets of London and face hardships and cruelty at every turn.
How can Fletcher, a former urchin, himself, and his colleagues, keep the money coming in when this Mr. King's popularity threatens to siphon off a good deal of that funding?
The hunt is on to find this mysterious Mr. King and find out his intentions. After being introduced to Miss Black at an event, Fletcher decides to enlist her help in finding Mr. King, of course, quite unaware that this enchanting, witty young woman is the very person he is seeking! What a dilemma! Ms. Eden has written a book that is so much fun and filled with such memorable characters, both our protagonists AND the characters they have created, as we also get the works of Mr. King and Mr. Walker interspersed with the stories of their authors.
I absolutely loved this book and these wonderfully appealing characters and their Victorian London milieu. There is romance! Mystery! And urchins! What could be better? Highly recommended for anyone looking for something enjoyably different. Or anyone that loves a good story!
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