The Outcast Girls

by Alys Clare Narrated by Lucy Scott

Overview

London, 1881. Lily Raynor, owner of the World's End Investigation Bureau, is growing increasingly worried. Work is drying up, finances are tight and she cannot find enough for her sole employee, Felix Wilbraham, to do. So when schoolteacher Georgiana Long arrives, with a worrying tale of runaway pupils, it seems like the answer to her prayers. Disguised as the new Assistant Matron, Lily joins the Shardlowes School staff. But there are undercurrents at Shardlowes, and the shadowy, powerful men who fund the school's less fortunate pupils loom larger as Felix's own investigations unfold. Felix can't shake off his fear that Lily is in danger - and soon, his premonitions come frighteningly true . . .

Editorial Reviews

Booklist on The Woman Who Spoke to Spirits

Engaging, dark, atmospheric, and, at times, quite charming and humorous . . . A fine choice for all mystery collections

From the Publisher

“Mystery and social commentary combine in a heartbreaking and sadly relevant tale” – Kirkus Reviews

“Chilling … Anne Perry fans will want to check this out” – Publishers Weekly

null Booklist on The Woman Who Spoke to Spirits

Engaging, dark, atmospheric, and, at times, quite charming and humorous . . . A fine choice for all mystery collections

Library Journal

07/01/2020

In this next mystery in the 1880s London-set series starring private investigators Lily Raynor and Felix Wilbraham (after The Woman Who Spoke to Spirits), Lily is called on to impersonate an assistant matron at the Shardlowes School. Her aim: to discover what happened to several vanished pupils.

Kirkus Reviews

2020-09-02
Clare’s second foray into the Victorian past discloses new information about her unusual heroine.

Private investigator Lily Raynor, who solved a complicated mystery in The Woman Who Spoke To Spirits (2019), is barely eking out a living for herself and her employee, Felix Wilbraham, when she’s offered a job by Georgiana Long, a teacher at Shardlowes, a school for women in the Fens. The school is supported by the Band of Angels, a shadowy philanthropic organization founded by the MacKillivers, a pair of Scottish twins, one of whom has a mental illness. Several of the Shardlowes girls, many of them mentally or physically challenged, have gone missing from the school. Eager to avoid a scandal, Miss Long asks Lily to pose as a nurse at the school. Lily trained as a nurse, a profession she loved yet left after a mysterious incident in India. She goes to Shardlowes feeling a good deal of trepidation, but she fits in easily and soon begins to uncover disquieting facts about the missing pupils while Felix, with the help of his journalist housemate, tracks down the first girl to go missing, Esme Sullivan, whose body turns up in the water in Portsmouth. Traveling to Scotland, Felix discovers things that make him fearful for Lily, who’s uncovered information that puts her in grave danger when another child is stolen. The experience that formed her in India makes her determined to reveal the truth.

Mystery and social commentary combine in a heartbreaking and sadly relevant tale.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940177389028
Publisher:	Oakhill Publishing
Publication date:	01/01/2021
Series:	World's End Bureau , #2
Edition description:	Unabridged

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