1920s Mysteries
for 21st Cantury Readers
Lucas Rathbone Mysteries
Lucas Rathbone just wants a quiet life writing for the local newspaper in his beloved village of Castlebury Magna.
​
Well, that and Clara Jenkins, the girl next door who wants a life full of fun and adventure, and to drag Lucas along for the ride.
​
What he gets is a psychic "gift" he loathes, more ghosts that he would ever want - along with their unfinished business, which naturally they expect him to resolve - and Clara's overprotective older brother Henry who, up until this point, was Lucas' best friend.
​
What could possibly go wrong?
​
Top Tip: Whilst there is the thread of a larger story in the background of each book, they can all be read as standalone stories in their own right.
Lucas Rathbone can talk to ghosts.
Sadly, he can't talk to girls - at least, not the one girl he really wants to.
Well, that's not quite true. Clara has been his best friend for years, but the words he says to her as easily as breathing aren't the ones making his heart ache.
Those words tangle his tongue and refuse to be spoken.
But Lucas is determined to celebrate Clara's 21st birthday with her, even if he can't tell her his true feelings and a 'flu outbreak in their village has decimated her guest list - and claimed the life of the baker's wife.
Then Lucas recieves information from a ghostly pal which suggests something more sinister than 'flu is going around the village...
And now Clara is sick.
Can Lucas solve the mystery and save the woman he loves, or will his longed-for romance end in tragedy before it begins?
Psychic abilities make solving murders easy, right?
Not in Lucas Rathbone’s experience, and his most recent ghostly “friend” is more problematic than most.
Because the recently deceased gangster is pointing the finger at the most dangerous criminals in London.
Lucas should walk away and leave this undesirable spirit to his fate…
But this might just give him a chance to impress Clara, his best friend’s beautiful but strictly off-limits sister.
Which is all he’s ever really wanted.
A moment of testosterone-fuelled madness sets Lucas and the girl he secretly loves on a path that will change their lives forever…
Or get them both killed.
Can they solve the mystery before the gang catches up with the amateur sleuths, or will their longed-for romance get snuffed out before it can even begin?
First dates shouldn’t end with murder and ghosts…
…but it’s too much to hope the Jazz singer lying on stage with her skull shattered is the victim of a tragic accident.
Anyway, her ghost says it must be murder, and who is Lucas to argue with a spirit? It never helped before.
Their evening’s entertainment ruined, Lucas and new flame Clara investigate – only to be foiled at every turn by local police and the remaining band members.
Everyone has secrets, after all.
Some are worth killing for.
Maybe a double funeral isn’t the most romantic thing in the world…
… but it’s at the seaside and with Lucas and Clara’s fledgeling romance still hush-hush, at least it’s an excuse to escape their gossipy village for the day and relax.
And when the children of the murder victims invite the couple to stay overnight, how could they refuse?
No, please - they’d like to know.
They’d really like to know.
Things get even worse when the victims’ ghosts tell Lucas the man convicted to hang for their murders is innocent, and Lucas must prove it.
The catch? There’s just two days before the sentence is carried out.
No pressure, then.
Who cons a conman?
​
***
​
An evening at the theatre goes awry when reluctant psychic Lucas Rathbone gets collared by a man’s two dead wives.
Both claim their husband murdered them for their money – and his third target is already admiring the glittering diamond on her left hand.
To save another young woman from a deadly fate - and rid himself of bickering ghosts – Lucas must stop the conman expanding his collection of deceased brides.
But the case takes an unexpected turn, and a cat-and-mouse chase begins that may have a fatal end…
Lucas Rathbone normally can’t stand hospitals.
Sick people and ghosts. Two things he hates.
But normally, he doesn’t have crooks on his tail and threatening the woman he loves.
Suddenly, staying in a building full of nice, trustworthy healthcare professionals seems very appealing.
To stop his girlfriend running headlong towards danger, Lucas invents a murderous doctor to keep her occupied as he thinks of a better solution to their problem.
All is peachy - until a spirit tells him there really is a killer on the loose in the hospital, with three dozen victims…
And counting.
With a friend occupying one of the beds in a ward, it’s never been more urgent for Lucas to solve the crime.
But can he manage it before the death tally climbs even higher?
Lucas can’t trust the man on the telephone – but he has no choice.
Impossibly handsome Tommy Kilbourne makes no secret of how he’d love to steal Clara from under Lucas’ rather plainer nose.
The relationship between the two men is… somewhat strained, to say the least.
But Clara is missing, and Lucas must work with his rival or never see the love of his life again.
It soon becomes clear Tommy has ulterior motives, and they’re more deadly than any matter of the heart.
Lucas is in way over his head…
And Clara is nowhere in sight.
Lucas Rathbone talks to ghosts.
Well, ghosts talk to Lucas. He'd rather they didn't.
But it’s solve murders or be haunted forever, and he has enough of that as it is.
In the first five Lucas Rathbone Mysteries, Lucas must solve crime to rid himself of ghosts, avoid a ruthless gang he accidentally crossed, and stop people meeting a untimely death, all while battling for a love with the odds stacked against it.
What could go wrong?
Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the manor…
Laughter echoed, and a forlorn local journalist is hiding behind a pot plant at the party he was hired to report on.
But Lucas Rathbone gets through the evening somehow.
Not everyone is so lucky.
Rather than enjoying a lazy Christmas with people he loves, Lucas find himself drawn into a murder investigation, hounded by the victim’s ghost and - worst of all - accused of the crime.
He never wanted to go to the party in the first place.
Hallowe’en parties aren’t spooky when you see spooks all the time.
But reluctant psychic Lucas is tolerating it for his fiancée’s sake – even the nonsense about a pen afflicted by an Ancient Egyptian curse.
Their host trying to summon a ghost was beyond the pale, though.
Thank goodness a very different kind of spirit was available to help take his mind off it.
However, not everyone at the party is as alive as they might be, and Lucas soon finds himself investigating a tragic tale of star-crossed lovers, family feuds, and murder.
Can he help the spirits reunite, or will their decades of heartbreak and loneliness continue… forever?
Lucas didn’t believe in horoscopes, until they started coming true.
Actually, the reluctant psychic didn’t even know about horoscopes until his more up-to-date girlfriend read theirs...
And to be honest, he really only listened in case this new fad would help him sell more copies of his own flagging newspaper.
​
But that doesn’t mean he has to believe them. How on earth could this Madame Foxglove possibly know new opportunities are on his horizon, trouble will come in the form of new acquaintances, and he should avoid the colour green?
Nonsense.
​
Then odd coincidences force Lucas to question his assumptions, and suddenly avoiding green doesn’t seem like such a bad idea after all…
Lucas Rathbone wouldn’t know an original painting if it slapped him in the face.
So when his artist girlfriend says the piece in the London art gallery should be a hundred miles away and hanging in their local pub, who is he to argue?
However, the ghost of the artist insists the London painting is the real deal, and he’s really not going to argue with her.
Not if he doesn’t want a headache for the rest of the weekend, anyway.
As he investigates, Lucas uncovers a tale of broken hearts, betrayals, and bitterness that goes beyond the grave.
But where did the second painting come from?
And who has the valuable original, and who has a worthless fake?
Tommy’s past sins have caught up to him at last.
A blackmail letter demanding hundreds of times the amount shoved under his mattress threatens his first real, honest-to-goodness romance. With no hope of paying the unknown blackmailer, he reluctantly turns to his friends Clara and Lucas for help.
Can they work out who sent the note in time to save his fledgeling love, or is Tommy destined to wander the world alone and heartbroken… forever?
Reluctant psychic Lucas Rathbone hoped the art preview evening in a lush garden would be free from ghostly interruptions.
Even though the exhibition is titled The Art of Death and the artist thins the paint with deadly toxins derived from her flowerbeds.
And thankfully, when he arrives the only spirits at the event are of the alcoholic variety, and he’s soon enjoying himself.
But when the avant garde artist accuses her guests of various crimes in a garden full of poisonous plants, it’s only a matter of time before someone is pushing up daisies.
With the telephone line cut and a vial of poison missing, Lucas must solve the mystery before the contents show up and the garden sprouts another body...
Lucas thought ghosts were trouble enough - but that was before he met Raven Xerces.
The oddly dressed, oddly spoken, odd-all-over man is obsessed with cocaine, swears like the sailor Clara insists he must be, and causes havoc wherever he goes.
Lucas can’t wait to see the back of him.
But when it seems Raven is visiting for more than just the scenery and peace of sleepy Castlebury Magna, Lucas and Clara must stop the interloper’s plans before one of the most innocent members of their little community meets an untimely end.
Get ready for culture clashes, misunderstandings, nosy ghosts, an apple that doesn’t work, swearing (lots), flirting (more than Lucas would like), ugly babies, and enough laugh out loud moments to have the tears rolling down your cheeks.
Clara Jenkins is a small town girl on a big city adventure.
Taking place four years before the main Lucas Rathbone Mysteries series, join lovable sidekick Clara as she makes the move from sleepy Castlebury Magna to the hustle and bustle of London just before her eighteeth birthday.
Running towards a more exciting life - and away from her feelings for Lucas, her best friend and the boy next door - Clara soon settles in to her new role as artist for a national newspaper, finding herself swiftly adopted by a colourful array of colleagues.
Those pesky feelings soon catch her up and, despite the best efforts of a devilishly handsome co-worker, Clara keeps finding herself drawn back to Lucas.
However there's more to life than moping over a doomed romance, and before long she finds herself on exactly the kind of thrilling adventure she came to the city in search of.
But it's soon clear thrilling adventures aren't all fun and games as Clara finds herself in real danger she can't see an escape from.
Perhaps dull village life isn't so bad after all...?