The Sailor's Ransom: A Bella Wallis Mystery

by Brian Thompson

Overview

London is alive with gossip about the thrilling new book by sensationalist author Henry Ellis Margam, but only a select group of people know that the real author is beautiful widow, and member of high society, Bella Wallis.

One of her confidantes is the dashing Philip Westland, who comes to Bella now with a problem: his best friend Kennet is smitten with the heiress Mary Skillane but Mary's father, Sir William, has promised her to Robert Judd, a vulgar treasure-seeker. Mary is due to inherit the Skillane pearls, which are currently residing in a Cornsih bank vault, but it seems that the pearls were ill-gotten.

Can Bella and her friends reunite the young lovers and escape the attention of the villainous Judd?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448113019
Publisher:	Random House
Publication date:	12/20/2011
Series:	Bella Wallis Victorian Mysteries , #2
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	277 KB

About the Author

Brian Thompson was born in London in 1935 and now lives in Oxford. He has written two award-winning volumes of memoir: Keeping Mum (2006), winner of the Costa Prize for Biography and the PEN/Ackerley Prize, and Clever Girl (2007), longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize. The first Bella Wallis mystery, The Widow's Secret, was published in 2008.

Editorial Reviews

In Thompson’s melodramatic second Victorian mystery featuring high society widow Bella Wallis (after Sept. 2011’s The Widow’s Secret), Bella, who writes “sensational” novels under the pseudonym Henry Ellis Margam to expose wrongdoers, agrees to do a favor for a confidant, spy Philip Westland. Philip’s childhood friend, William Kennett, “the cleverest man in England,” is in love with meek heiress Mary Skillane, but Mary’s heartless father insists she wed Robert Judd, a scoundrel Mary detests. William vows to do anything to prevent this union, even if it means killing Judd. Bella offers to help save Mary from this horrible fate. Despite a straightforward plot with few twists and less than fully developed characters, readers will cheer Bella and friends as they plunge into the rankest London slums and later get on the trail of a merciless killer and a fortune in pearls in Cornwall. (Dec.)

EBOOK COMMENTARY

In Thompson’s melodramatic second Victorian mystery featuring high society widow Bella Wallis (after Sept. 2011’s The Widow’s Secret), Bella, who writes “sensational” novels under the pseudonym Henry Ellis Margam to expose wrongdoers, agrees to do a favor for a confidant, spy Philip Westland. Philip’s childhood friend, William Kennett, “the cleverest man in England,” is in love with meek heiress Mary Skillane, but Mary’s heartless father insists she wed Robert Judd, a scoundrel Mary detests. William vows to do anything to prevent this union, even if it means killing Judd. Bella offers to help save Mary from this horrible fate. Despite a straightforward plot with few twists and less than fully developed characters, readers will cheer Bella and friends as they plunge into the rankest London slums and later get on the trail of a merciless killer and a fortune in pearls in Cornwall. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"With a glorious heroine and wicked humour, Brian Thompson lays bare the sexual shenanigans and hypocrisy of Victorian England."  —John Harvey, author, Frank Elder Mystery series

"The atmosphere is delicious, tangible, and irresistible. The dialogue is believably Victorian. And Bella Wallis is a joy to follow around through a few hundred pages." —The Historical Novels Review

From the Publisher