Petticoat Detective by Margaret Brownley is the 1st novel in her Undercover Ladies trilogy of western historical mystery with strong f/m romantic elements (or romantic suspense with strong investigative mystery elements, depending on how you look at it), starring female Pinkerton Detectives (Wikipedia), this installment placing the heroine undercover at brothel to catch a notorious outlaw, when one of the employees who has information on him is murdered, and a handsome stranger is one of her prime suspects, free courtesy of Christian publisher Barbour's Shiloh Run imprint.
According to the editorial reviews, this is based loosely on the life of Kate Warne (Wikipedia), the real life first female Pinkerton detective who apparently had a very interesting life, and established the agency as a place that would hire and train women to do detective work. According to the customer reviews, this is pretty much co-equally plotty twisty mystery and slightly humorous romance, with a reasonably respectful non-preachy treatment of the "working girls". YMMV.
Currently free @ B&N, Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK) & Kobo (available to Canadians). Price-drop-check linkage for ChristianBook (DRM-free ePub), where these things usually show up. Might also be free at Google Play in the US.
This has actually been free in April, but it was a single-store glitch freebie then, and now seems to be an official offering when everything else from then has expired and looks nifty enough to give a spotlight.
Description
Pinkerton detective Jennifer Layne is no stranger to undercover work. But posing as a lady companion named Amy at Miss Lillian’s Parlor House and Boots is a first for her. She’s finally landed a high-profile case and is on the trail of the notorious Gunnysack Bandit, when one of Miss Lillian’s girls essential to her investigation meets an untimely demise. Only a handful of people are in the house at the time of her death, including handsome Tom Colton, a former Texas Ranger determined to clear his brother’s name. Amy has many reasons to suspect Tom of murder—and one very personal reason to hope that she’s wrong about him.
According to the editorial reviews, this is based loosely on the life of Kate Warne (Wikipedia), the real life first female Pinkerton detective who apparently had a very interesting life, and established the agency as a place that would hire and train women to do detective work. According to the customer reviews, this is pretty much co-equally plotty twisty mystery and slightly humorous romance, with a reasonably respectful non-preachy treatment of the "working girls". YMMV.
Currently free @ B&N, Amazon (available to Canadians & in the UK) & Kobo (available to Canadians). Price-drop-check linkage for ChristianBook (DRM-free ePub), where these things usually show up. Might also be free at Google Play in the US.
This has actually been free in April, but it was a single-store glitch freebie then, and now seems to be an official offering when everything else from then has expired and looks nifty enough to give a spotlight.
Description
Pinkerton detective Jennifer Layne is no stranger to undercover work. But posing as a lady companion named Amy at Miss Lillian’s Parlor House and Boots is a first for her. She’s finally landed a high-profile case and is on the trail of the notorious Gunnysack Bandit, when one of Miss Lillian’s girls essential to her investigation meets an untimely demise. Only a handful of people are in the house at the time of her death, including handsome Tom Colton, a former Texas Ranger determined to clear his brother’s name. Amy has many reasons to suspect Tom of murder—and one very personal reason to hope that she’s wrong about him.