Petty Treason (Sarah Tolerance Mystery S.) - Tapa dura

"Sarah Tolerance is smart, beautiful, resourceful, tough, and totally believable and real. Murder, prostitution, blackmail, and action are woven perfectly into this tale."

Miss Sarah Tolerance refuses to follow the Fallen Women who have gone before her. She's a straight shooter, with her pistol as well as her wit, and her mind is as sharp as the blade of her sword. Miss Tolerance is an Agent of Inquiry, a private investigator of sorts - the sole one of her kind in 1810 London. Her aim was to trace lost trinkets, send wastrel husbands back to their wives, and provide protection to persons with more money than sense - but she is continually drawn into the plots of others. Her newest case poses a puzzle unlike any she has faced before: who killed the Chevalier d' Aubigny? He was beaten to death in his own bed, found by his retainers the next morning, all the doors and windows of the house sealed tight. As Miss Tolerance examines the situation, she realizes things are far more complicated than she originally suspected, for the Chevalier had more enemies than he had friends, and Miss Tolerance is hard pressed to find someone who didn't wish him dead. Her search for his killer takes her from the lowest brothels of the London underworld, where men go to indulge their more aggressive desires, to the Royal Family and a Duke who must hide his perversions or risk the Throne. Welcome to Miss Tolerance's Regency London, where nothing is what it seems and the only way to serve justice is to follow conscience rather than law.