Historical Mystery

Shamus Bead and the Cure for What Kills You

Name: Shamus Bead and the Cure for What Kills You
Rating: 3.29 (7 reviews)
Author: Melody Clark

Melody Clark

3.29 7 Ratings

Ongoing Status

22 Views

Start Reading

Synopsis

Shamus Bead and Jeptha Lawton, chief investigators for the Royal Epidemiological Society, are investigating a potential epidemic in Spitalfields.. Local doctors believe the illnesses to be unrelated episodes of madness, but Bead recognizes one ailment that is neurological in nature. The only question is whether the epidemic is viral, bacterial, or the more complex result of Victorian London’s ongoing industrial pollution problem. The investigation turns in an unexpected direction as Shamus must prove that any substance powerful enough to improve health is also potent enough to kill someone. And Shamus and Jeptha’s relationship grows deeper and even more complex.

Books similar to Shamus Bead and the Cure for What Kills You

The Lost Deaths

★ 4.82

Maxime J. Durand (Void Herald)

In the City of Light, even Deaths can die.

The year is 1889. As Eiffel and his iron tower herald a new age of science and industry, young Laurent Valmore learns a dead man’s secret: that Deaths great and small have preyed upon men since the dawn of civilization, and that mankind will only achieve immortality once they are all slain.

This is his first hunt.

It won’t be the last.

Winner of the January 2025 Community Magazine Contest.

GoT/ASOIAF: The Prince of Scrolls

★ 4.6

Walder

Prince Jaehaerys, third son of the Mad King, returns to the capital at the command of his brother, King Rhaegar. Whispers call him "the prince of scrolls"—a young man with a passion for maesters and knowledge.

Now, he must take the hand of Princess Daenerys in marriage, a union that promises castle and gold. But what reason does he have to refuse when his own nephew, Prince Daemon, seeks his death?

Will he allow his nephew to claim victory?

And why does one dragon fear the wrath of another?

“If marrying my sister grants me the means to achieve my goals, I will not hesitate to fight—not even against the one said to be equal to Ser Barristan the Bold.”

“And what goal is that?”

For more: https://linktr.ee/walderblack

Bloodsworn Eternity, Vow Across Lifetimes

★ 5.0

pangmida

In the grim shroud of Velisandria, where the streets at night are roamed by creatures of bloodlust, Elise Whitefield is more a relic than a woman—her father’s masterpiece, the Porcelain Doll of Duskmoore.

Forged in the cold fire of duty, her heart has been a locked casket since girlhood. Now, she knows nothing beyond obedience: protect the realm, slay the night, and guard the borders of Duskmoore where the forest hungers just beyond the treeline. To the world, she is perfection frozen in time, feeling nothing, wanting nothing.

But even the sharpest blade can falter.

When the elegant and mysterious Duke Ravencourt enters her life, her heart begins to waver. Where she is ice, he is the flame of a candle in a sepulchre. In his presence, the casket of her heart begins to tremble, and a long-dormant warmth threatens to thaw the perpetual winter within.

Now, Elise stands at the precipice of her own soul.

Will she remain her father’s flawless weapon, eternal and untouched?

Or will she shatter her own iron prison and allow a forbidden love to teach her how to live again?

And so begins another life...
Another story...
And the same vow across lifetimes.

Cover art by: me

The Ivory City

★ 4.15

Emily Bain Murphy

The St. Louis World’s Fair, 1904: A miniature city of palaces and pavilions that becomes a backdrop for romance, betrayal—and murder.
Cousins Grace and Lillie have been best friends since birth, despite Grace’s vastly inferior social status ever since her mother married for love instead of wealth. When Lillie invites Grace to the biggest event of the century—the legendary World’s Fair, also known as “The Ivory City”—Grace hopes her fortunes might be about to change.
But when a member of their party is brutally killed at the fair, and suspicion falls on Lillie’s brother Oliver, Grace must prove Oliver’s innocence before her beloved cousins’ family is ruined forever. Along the way, she'll discover that the city’s wealthy elite—including Oliver’s handsome but irritable friend Theodore—aren’t quite who they appear to be. And amidst the glitz, glamor, and magic of the Ivory City lurks a danger that just may claim her life.

Murder at Donwell Abbey

★ 4.35

Vanessa Kelly

In this latest Regency-era mystery, Jane Austen’s clever Emma Knightley navigates shocking changes in her family—while meeting her match in a deadly adversary . . .

Emma’s spirits are elevated after she and husband George Knightley host a joyful holiday celebration at the Hartfield estate. But it’s instantly a bitter January when her father makes an unexpected announcement—he and Miss Hetty Bates have decided to marry. Not only must Emma relinquish her role as mistress of the household, but also accept the reality that the excitable Miss Bates will become her stepmother . . .

More unwanted news arrives during an extravagant betrothal ball at Donwell Abbey, the grand Knightley estate where Emma and George will soon permanently reside. Nearly every villager in Highbury revels in the dazzling affair—except Emma’s hardworking lady’s maid, Prudence Parr. To Emma’s horror, Prudence is found dead, sprawled across the stones of the library terrace . . .

The woman’s tragic fall is quickly ruled a terrible accident and whispers circulate around personal troubles leading up to her untimely demise. But Emma’s instincts tell her that something far more sinister is at play. Now, Highbury’s matchmaker-turned-sleuth vows to outwit a cunning criminal before an innocent man loses his freedom—or Donwell Abbey plunges into a darker mystery . . .

The Devil in the White City

★ 4.00

Erik Larson

Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America

Erik Larson's gifts as a storyteller are magnificently displayed in this rich narrative of the master builder, the killer, and the great fair that obsessed them both.

Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair's brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country's most important structures, including the Flatiron Building in New York and Union Station in Washington, D.C. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his "World's Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds—a torture palace complete with dissection table, gas chamber, and 3,000-degree crematorium. Burnham overcame tremendous obstacles and tragedies as he organized the talents of Frederick Law Olmsted, Charles McKim, Louis Sullivan, and others to transform swampy Jackson Park into the White City, while Holmes used the attraction of the great fair and his own satanic charms to lure scores of young women to their deaths. What makes the story all the more chilling is that Holmes really lived, walking the grounds of that dream city by the lake.

The Devil in the White City draws the reader into a time of magic and majesty, made all the more appealing by a supporting cast of real-life characters, including Buffalo Bill, Theodore Dreiser, Susan B. Anthony, Thomas Edison, Archduke Francis Ferdinand, and others. In this book the smoke, romance, and mystery of the Gilded Age come alive as never before.

A Master of Djinn

★ 4.00

P. Djèlí Clark

Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe for his fantasy novel debut, A Master of Djinn

Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.

So when someone murders a secret brotherhood dedicated to one of the most famous men in history, al-Jahiz, Agent Fatma is called onto the case. Al-Jahiz transformed the world 50 years ago when he opened up the veil between the magical and mundane realms, before vanishing into the unknown. This murderer claims to be al-Jahiz, returned to condemn the modern age for its social oppressions. His dangerous magical abilities instigate unrest in the streets of Cairo that threaten to spill over onto the global stage.

Alongside her Ministry colleagues and her clever girlfriend Siti, Agent Fatma must unravel the mystery behind this imposter to restore peace to the city -or face the possibility he could be exactly who he seems…

Alias Grace

★ 4.04

Margaret Atwood

It's 1843, and Grace Marks has been convicted for her involvement in the vicious murders of her employer and his housekeeper and mistress. Some believe Grace is innocent; others think her evil or insane. Now serving a life sentence, Grace claims to have no memory of the murders.

An up-and-coming expert in the burgeoning field of mental illness is engaged by a group of reformers and spiritualists who seek a pardon for Grace. He listens to her story while bringing her closer and closer to the day she cannot remember. What will he find in attempting to unlock her memories?

Captivating and disturbing, Alias Grace showcases best-selling, Booker Prize-winning author Margaret Atwood at the peak of her powers.