Showing results by author "C. J. Archer" in All Categories

When the celebrated biographer of the infamous pirate Blackheart takes a suite at the Mayfair Hotel to live out his final months, Goliath the porter is desperate to ask the one question that has haunted treasure hunters for decades: Where is the loot buried? Forbidden to disturb a guest, he instead visits the man writing the author’s own life story, only to discover him dead at his desk. Accused of the crime, Goliath turns to Cleo and Harry to clear his name.

This boxed set contains the first three books in C. J. Archer's popular Ministry of Curiosities series. Titles in the set include The Last Necromancer, Her Majesty's Necromancer, and Beyond the Grave. Description of The Last Necromancer: For five years, Charlotte (Charlie) Holloway has lived as a boy in the slums. But when one theft too many gets her arrested, her only means of escape lies with a dead man.

December 1899. After the death of her beloved grandmother, Cleopatra Fox moves into the luxury hotel owned by her estranged uncle in the hopes of putting hardship and loneliness behind her. But the poisoning of a guest on Christmas eve throws her new life, and the hotel, into chaos. Cleo quickly realizes no one can be trusted, not Scotland Yard and especially not the hotel’s charming assistant manager.

India Steele is desperate. Her father is dead, her fiancé took her inheritance, and no one will employ her, despite years working for her watchmaker father. Indeed, the other London watchmakers seem frightened of her. Alone, poor, and at the end of her tether, India takes employment with the only person who’ll accept her–an enigmatic and mysterious man from America. A man who possesses a strange watch that rejuvenates him when he’s ill.

When Gavin travels to Edinburgh with his good friend Oscar Barratt, he’s eager to acquire a centuries-old book on witchcraft for the soon-to-open Glass Library. Even with ruthless railroad magnate John J. Defoe in the bidding, the victory comes easily. Perhaps too easily. Hours later, the book is stolen. A single clue links the theft to the recent abduction of two women, both magicians.

The arrival of Buffalo Bill's Wild West show in London brings trouble. When the sharpshooter who beats Willie at poker is murdered, Matt and India investigate. Willie is convinced the victim cheated, but no one knows how until India discovers his secret - he was a paper magician. When their list of suspects grows to include a member of the mysterious magic Collector's Club, they uncover a spy. But who is he working for? And what does his employer want?

When a palace maid is attacked, Josie and the captain of the guards investigate together. Since one of the suspects is a foreign diplomat and magic expert, they use the opportunity to learn more about sorcery. But it soon becomes clear that he is using them to get to the truth about the palace and the servants' origins. With unrest in the village, and servants growing impatient for answers, an undercurrent of danger pervades the air. But the most dangerous man of all may prove to be the king himself, because every clue points to him knowing more than he lets on.

Summer has arrived along with a plethora of social events that keep Cleo and her cousins busy. Between balls, dinners, concerts and picnics, they attend the final match between two proud polo clubs. When the winning team’s captain is found murdered in the stables, everyone assumes the opposing team’s captain killed him. After all, he was found holding the murder weapon, and everyone knows they hated each other.

Are curses real? After a toymaker magician gives a lecture at a collector’s club soiree, an important spell is stolen and a man is found strangled. The investigation into his murder leads India and Matt to the colorful and dangerous world of the Romany gypsy where curses are used as weapons against their enemies. But nobody seems to know if curses are real or not. As Matt and India close in on the killer, old foes bring trouble into their lives. With the threat of exposure hanging over London’s magicians, disaster is never far away.

Time is running out for Hannah. With her life hanging by a thread and Tate trying to kidnap her, she finds help in an unusual quarter – the man who put the narcoleptic memory block on her as a child. Yet the powerful hypnotist may not be all that he seems. It’s difficult to trust a man who regularly hypnotizes his wife against her wishes, and who is much too interested in Jack’s unnatural abilities.

A sordid scandal rocks the Glass household and threatens to ruin Matt's family unless he can suppress it. But after word gets out, and a rare magical coronet is stolen, he and India find themselves scrambling to recover the heirloom and suppress the gossip before reputations are ruined. To make matters worse, someone is sending threatening letters to the magicians of London, stirring up trouble between the artless and magicians. Tensions are rising, but India and Matt choose not to investigate - until the author of the letters is assaulted.

Jacqueline (Jac) has survived on the streets ever since escaping from the clutches of her ruthless uncle, the city’s powerful governor. He craves more than political influence and believes a legendary talisman in Jac’s possession can give it to him. To survive, Jac has honed her skills as a thief, catching the eye of Rhys Mayhew, a brother in an order of warrior priests. Rhys enlists her as a spy, and their partnership soon deepens into more. But Rhys’s faith demands strict adherence to oaths of denial.

A waif, her abductor and a twist you won't see coming. For five years, Charlotte (Charlie) Holloway has lived as a boy in the slums. But when one theft too many gets her arrested, her only means of escape lies with a dead man. Charlie hasn't raised a spirit since she first discovered she could do so five years ago. That time, her father banished her. This time, she brings even more trouble upon herself. People are now hunting Charlie all over London, but only one man succeeds in capturing her.

December 1899. After the death of her beloved grandmother, Cleopatra Fox moves into the luxury hotel owned by her estranged uncle in the hopes of putting hardship and loneliness behind her. But the poisoning of a guest throws her new life, and the hotel, into chaos. Cleo quickly realizes no one can be trusted, not Scotland Yard and especially not the hotel’s charming assistant manager. With the New Year’s Eve ball approaching fast and the hotel’s reputation hanging by a thread, Cleo must find the killer before the ball, and the hotel itself, are ruined.

Librarian Sylvia Ashe knows nothing about her past, having grown up without a father and a mother who refused to discuss him. When she stumbles upon a diary that suggests she's descended from magicians, she's skeptical. After all, magicians are special, and she's just an ordinary woman who loves books. She seeks answers from a member of the most prominent family of magicians, but she quickly learns that finding the truth won't be easy, especially when he turns out to be as artless as her, and more compelling and dangerous than books.

The weekend was supposed to be an enjoyable time with her family at the neo-Gothic manor of Lord and Lady Kershaw, but when the gamekeeper is murdered, Cleo can’t rest until the killer is caught. As a witness herself, she’s frustrated with the incompetence of the local police who lay the blame on a man who conveniently disappeared. When she realizes their ineptitude is a result of Lord Kershaw’s influence, she focuses her investigation on the earl and his family, against the wishes of her uncle.

Finding an old manuscript in the attic has always been a fantasy of Sylvia’s. She just never expected the fantasy to come true, or for it to lead her to answers about her mysterious family.

When assassin Rafe Fletcher returns home to London, he can’t help falling for his brother’s woman. For a man looking for redemption, it’s the last thing he wants. Lizzie Croft has feared her friend’s brooding brother for years. She remembers him as cold, calculating and dangerous, the very last man she needs in her life. The very last man she can trust. But trust him she must when she becomes the prime suspect in a murder.

When the editor of The Weekly Gazette is killed, controversial journalist and ink magician, Oscar Barratt, asks India and Matt to investigate. As the recipient of threatening letters written on magic paper, he believes he was the intended target. With suspects ranging from Oscar's brother to guild masters and London's elite, India and Matt have a lot of investigating to do. But the more they dig, the more dark secrets they uncover.

The Goldsmith’s Conspiracy is the final book in the best-selling Glass and Steele series. Tensions between the artless and magicians are flaring, but India and Matt discover someone is deliberately fuelling the flames. Relentlessly pursuing his own agenda, Lord Coyle employs the former master of the Watchmaker’s Guild to make trouble and be a thorn in India’s side. But India has the ear of the government now, and her own political influence is growing, something which pushes Lord Coyle over the edge.