After the mysterious death of her father, Miss Gillian Young takes a new job as the principal costume designer at the renowned Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. But while she remembers her father as a kind, well-respected man of the Police Force, clues she uncovers indicate he’d been living a double life: a haunting photograph of a young woman; train stubs for secret trips just before his death; and a receipt for a large sum of money.
Then Gillian meets the dashing Viscount Thomas Lockwood. Their attraction is instant and inescapable. As their romantic involvement grows, Gillian begins to suspect even Lockwood’s motives. Does Lord Lockwood truly love her? Or is his interest a front for the desire to own her newly inherited property?
Soon Gillian is convinced that her father has left evidence somewhere that can prove his innocence and reveal the guilty party. But someone wants to stop her from discovering it. The closer she comes to uncovering it, the more menacing her opposition grows. With her life on the line, Gillian takes on an ingenious disguise and takes on the role of a lifetime to reveal the true killer—before it’s too late both for her and for those that she loves.
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Sandra's new series, Daughters of Hampshire, historically sound Gothic romances, launched with best-selling Book One: Mist of Midnight. That book earned a coveted Editor's Choice from the Historical Novel Society. The second book, Bride of a Distant Isle, has been selected by Romantic Times as a Top Pick. The third in the series, A Lady in Disguise, will publish in March 2017. Sandra's latest nonfiction title is The One Year Home and Garden Devotions.
Check out her contemporary adult fiction debut, Let Them Eat Cake, which was a Christy Award finalist, as was her first historical novel, To Die For A Novel of Anne Boleyn. To Die For was also named by Library Journal as a Best Books Pick for 2011 and The Secret Keeper: A Novel of Kateryn Parr was named a Library Journal Best Books Pick for 2012.
Sandra has published dozens of books for kids, tweens and teens, including the best-selling, The One Year Be-Tween You and God, Devotions For Girls, and two read aloud picture books.
She is passionate about helping new writers develop their talent and their work toward traditional or self-publication. As such, she has mentored and coached hundreds of new writers and continues to coach dozens to success each year via novelcoaching.com
http://www.sandrabyrd.com/
Gillian Young is a talented seamstress and works for the Theatre Royal on Drury Lane and her father has just died in an accident. She finds out that her father may have led a double life. She meets Viscount Thomas Lockwood, a very handsome young man who is actually a neighbor in Hampshire where the family home, Winton Park is. After her father's death, she finds out that her mother, also deceased, wants the house to be donated to the 'Cause'.
The Cause is where there are people who want to stop the human trafficking that is taking place. One organization, The Salvation Army, that tries to do good and help the helpless if you will. A lot of children, mainly girls are sold into slavery and often into prostitution and this is also a topic that is not often talked about in certain circles, this is Victorian England in the late 1800's. Gillian ends up taking into her home two girls that if left on their own would have been entered into this life. She soon grows fond of these two girls and they help her make the costumes for the theater.
After Gillian has left her father's funeral and returns home she finds that her home has been searched by the police. They seem to be looking for proof of her father's supposed dishonesty. She finds herself being followed and does not know whom to trust. She searches her home and Winton Park to see if she can find proof that her father was innocent of any wrongdoing.
A Lady in Disguise is the third novel in the Daughters of Hampshire series. I have read them all and I have enjoyed each one. The depth of the characters, the plot etc is written in such a way that you can almost feel the mists rolling along the streets and the darkness of the tale reminds me of other Gothic authors that I have read over the years, particularly Victoria Holt and Mary Stewart. The research is impeccable and the story is romantic but a clean romance. Very reminiscent of authors from the early to mid 1900's. I love all of Sandra's books, especially her Tudor series, my favorite era in historical fiction. I look forward to whatever comes next from Sandra Byrd!
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