by Lisa M. Lane

Before the Time Machine

Late in the 19th century, H. G. Wells struggles to become a success, first as a teacher and then as a writer. Over a century later, Katherine teaches history at a small college in California. She wants to be a scholar, and designs a historical project on H. G. Wells so that she can do her research in England. The research trips take on an air of pilgrimage, while Wells lives his own biography. The two characters converse across time, sharing views on love, ambition, illness, teaching, and history. As Katherine becomes a woman out of time, and Wells becomes a man ahead of his, their stories cross. He learns how to realize his dreams, as she wraps hers together to complete her life.

Murder at Old St. Thomas’s

In 1862 London, the body of a famous surgeon is found, sitting upright, in an old operating theatre. His dead eyes stare at the table at the center of the room, where patients had screamed and cried as medical students looked on. The bookish Inspector Slaughter must discover the killer with the help of his American sergeant Mark Honeycutt and clues from Nightingale nurses, surgeon’s dressers, devious apothecaries, and even stage actors. Victorian Southwark becomes the theatre for revealing secrets of the past in a world where anaesthesia is new, working-class audiences enjoy Shakespeare, and women reformers solve society’s problems.

Murder at an Exhibition

In 1863 London, a photographer is murdered, his body found at the Royal Academy Exhibition shortly after his assistant, Bridget, is locked in the dark-room at the studio. Then art expert Giovanni Morelli is attacked. With the police unable to see the connection, illustrator Jo Harris and Bridget must uncover the clues among wealthy art collectors and purveyors of photographic pornography, with the help of a middle-aged Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Murder on the Pneumatic Railway

In 1870, the body of a postal clerk is found inside a pneumatic railway car, and surgeon Samson Light has been accused. Tommy Jones must abandon his many jobs to pursue the witness who can exonerate his former tutor. Inspector Morgan of St Giles Station seems unusually reluctant to pursue the case, so Samson’s barrister, wife, and friends must investigate. Clues lead to the General Post Office, the London Pneumatic Despatch Company, the highest realms of the Foreign Office, and inside Clerkenwell Gaol itself. Why was an ordinary clerk killed and, if it wasn’t Samson who did it, who did?

The Dancing Colonel: A Short Story

A charity ball seems the perfect event for Bridget to show off her cakes and tarts. But when Colonel Marsh drops dead on the dance floor in front of his young partner, questions arise. Was it heart trouble or poison? And if it was poison, are Bridget’s treats to blame? Join Bridget and her friend Jo Harris in solving the mystery of the dancing colonel.

Historical Romance

A Heart Purloined

Amanda Goodwin and Jack Strawman meet when both are robbing the house of a notorious swindler who had made life difficult for each of them. Jack is a compulsive liar, and Amanda tells the truth even when it causes trouble. Will they betray each other to keep their own motives secret, or will they succumb to the undeniable attraction they feel for each other? Family loyalties are at stake in a romance that is inconvenient for everyone.

H. G. Wells on Science Education

For the decade before The Time Machine became a best-seller, H. G. Wells was a bright, lower-middle class youth trying to overcome familial pressure to become a shop clerk. His love for books and knowledge led to an ambition to become a science teacher, and a participant in the scientific debates of the late 19th century. In the wake of Darwinian theories, scientific study had changed, but science education has remained behind. Wells’ writings as a young man reveal the controversies over science education in a way that will seem familiar to educators today, while at the same time showing Wells as a young writer of wit and perception.