Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    The Secrets of Wishtide
    Unavailable
    The Secrets of Wishtide
    Unavailable
    The Secrets of Wishtide
    Ebook346 pages5 hours

    The Secrets of Wishtide

    By Kate Saunders

    4/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    'A Dickensian glow pervades this immensely satisfying novel. Hugely enjoyable' James Runcie, author of 'The Grantchester Mysteries'
    'Saunders's prose is precise and a pleasure to read. The plot twists and turns, and Laetitia is a warm and engaging heroine' The Times

    The first in the delightfully cosy and clever mystery series featuring private detective, Laetitia Rodd.

    Winter, 1850. Mrs Laetitia Rodd is the impoverished widow of an Archdeacon, living modestly in Hampstead with her landlady Mrs Bentley. She is also a private detective of the utmost discretion.

    When her brother Frederick, a criminal barrister, introduces her to Sir James Calderstone, a wealthy and powerful industrialist, she is tasked to investigate the background of an 'unsuitable' woman his son intends to marry – a match he is determined to prevent.

    In the guise of governess, she travels to the family seat, Wishtide, deep in the frozen Lincolnshire countryside, where she soon discovers that the Calderstones have more to hide than most. As their secrets unfold, the case takes an unpleasant turn when a man is found dead outside a tavern, and Mrs Rodd's search for the truth takes her from elite drawing rooms to London's notorious inns and its steaming laundry houses.

    Perfect for fans of The Thursday Murder Club, M.C. Beaton, Jessica Fellowes and James Runcie.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
    Release dateJul 7, 2016
    ISBN9781408866887
    Author

    Kate Saunders

    KATE SAUNDERS was a journalist whose work appeared in The Independent, The Guardian and The Washington Post. She was a founder of the Legal Research Group and was active in the campaign for Harry Wu's release. She lived in London.

    Related to The Secrets of Wishtide

    Titles in the series (1)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Man Behind Edna

      May 17, 2023

      The Man Behind Edna
      7 min read

    • Article

      Letterbocks

      Apr 14, 2022

      letters@viz.co.uk □ “OUR HOUSE, in the middle of the street,” sang popular North London ska band Madness in the eighties. But I can’t imagine they were particularly popular with local residents if they had a house blocking the middle of the road. If

      9 min read

    • Article

      A summons FROM AUNTIE

      Jan 25, 2023

      ‘I know a fat old policeman, he’s always on our street,’ sang Mr Dear at the top of what I suppose we must call his voice. ‘A large and jolly red-faced man, he really is a treat.’ Then, suddenly, the only sounds were the gentle hum of the engine, th

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Courage To Be Happy

      Feb 1, 2023

      MARRIAGE and columns have this in common: you tend to repeat yourself. More than once in these pages, I have quoted the New Yorker’s legendary film critic Pauline Kael. After President Nixon’s landslide victory in 1972 she wrote: ‘I live in a rather

      3 min read

    • Article

      FOGO versus FOMO

      Mar 8, 2023

      FOGO versus FOMO
      6 min read

    • Article

      The INHERITANCE

      Jul 19, 2023

      The INHERITANCE
      3 min read

    • Article

      Wartime Memories

      Nov 11, 2022

      Due to my fondness for storytelling and recording everything that ever happened to me, my family and the world, I doubt I shall ever be that golden oldie who sits with a wide-eyed younger generation at my feet telling tales of yore whilst they gasp i

      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Post Office Hotel, Maude

      Dec 19, 2018

      Post Office Hotel, Maude
      6 min read

    • Article

      POISON ON Pink Paper

      Dec 23, 2019

      POISON ON Pink Paper
      8 min read

    • Article

      Last Orders

      Jul 28, 2021

      Last Orders
      5 min read

    • Article

      How not TO RELAX

      Apr 10, 2024

      ‘What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare?’ wrote a chap called William H. Davies, the poet laureate of the duvet day. He coined those words in 1911, which was clearly a more relaxed age. I’d like to see Mr Davies attemp

      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘Cygnet’: Featured Fiction from Season Butler

      Jun 25, 2019

      A excerpt from Butler's debut coming-of-age novel, set in an appealingly rich world with quirky, flawed characters and a dramatic oceanfront landscape. The post ‘Cygnet’: Featured Fiction from Season Butler appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      Refusenik

      Jan 1, 2021

      I was promised a girl held her glossy image, shatterable, ice skating on a Soviet pond. I’d never seen snow but for the cut out paper flakes hung in school hallways. I only knew rain as intermittent confusion. Los Angeles in the ’80s. We set fire to

      7 min read

    • Article

      Four’s A Crowd

      Sep 24, 2020

      Four’s A Crowd
      4 min read

    • Article

      Mrs. Robinson

      Dec 10, 2022

      “Do you think she will like me?” The question slipped from between my lips and hung suspended in the air. My gloved hands were in my lap, and I was wringing them. As the carriage conveyed us and we neared my new husband’s ancestral home, Ashby Hall,

      20 min read

    • Article

      A Countryman In London

      Mar 15, 2023

      FOR some months, the muscular Romanian lady who works at the car wash at the end of my street had been calling me ‘a very naughty boy’. It wasn’t anything like that: Marta only ever sponged the outside of my little Suzuki and occasionally hoovered th

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Book of Loki

      Mar 12, 2018

      The Book of Loki
      20 min read

    • Article

      All Of Us Here

      Jun 4, 2020

      All Of Us Here
      6 min read

    • Article

      Elizabeth Coleman

      Jan 8, 2024

      Elizabeth Coleman
      2 min read

    • Article

      Winning Letter

      Sep 30, 2022

      I’m a single mother who struggles financially to get through each month. When my washing machine broke I had no funds to repair it, so I asked my neighbours if I could do my washing at their place. On a Wednesday afternoon my bell rang. At the door w

      5 min read

    • Article

      The Last Friend on Earth

      May 4, 2023

      It was as if Doreen Saunders had been waiting for me, passing the time until my arrival. She might as well have been sitting in a rocking chair, knitting needles clicking, jam tarts cooling on the side, the door wide open, waiting for the next visito

      6 min read

    • Article

      Tante’s Tales

      Oct 5, 2021

      Tante’s Tales
      3 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Secrets of Wishtide

    4/5

    115 ratings7 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Kate Saunders captures life in the villages around London in 1850 well, especially through the eyes of a 52-year-old widowed female whose life would be reduced to unpaid governess of her nieces and nephews had she not asserted her will and decided to do private investigation work for her barrister brother. Using largely her intuition and knowledge of people and their motivations, Laetiticia "Letty" Rodd helps solve what starts out to be a simple question and becomes an overly complex case. A few flaws: too many confusing characters, too many convenient coincidences, and the main character tends to hit the reader over the head with the important social points the author is trying to make. That being said, this is still a fairly enjoyable Dickensian mystery with several laugh-out-loud funny lines. Obviously the start of a new series, one would hope readers find out more about Mrs. Rodd in future adventures.
    • 3/5
      This bood was given to me as a gift and I thought it looked intriguing. It's an historical mystery set in Victorian England which is my favourite time and place for mysteries, but I was disappointed with it though. I found the character development a bit week and, to be truthful, I didn't care for Letitia Rodd. Letitia is a fifty-something vicar's widow who finds herself in rather straightened circumstances and she supplements her meagre income by helping her successful attorney brother invvestigate some of his clients' cases. A bit of a stretch perhaps, but Letititia is farily successful at ferreting out the truth. In this book she is asked to help a prominent family discredit a current love interest of their only son. The case is much more complex than it first appears, and Letitia finds herself in the middle of numerous family secrets and also she finds she is in some danger from a particularly heartless killer. I found the book did not flow smoothly, and the plot was a bit plodding in between inexplicably abrupt changes in story lines and plot threads.
    • 5/5
      I've previously started this book at least 3 times and never gotten past the first page - or even gotten to the first page before being distracted by something else so this time I was determined to get this book read. It turns out that once I could actually sit down and read more than a handful of words, getting it read wasn't a problem at all. It was a great read! I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book starts out like it's the middle of an on-going series; it doesn't bother to lay down a bunch of background or drag the reader through Mrs. Rodd's start as a discrete detective. But never as the reader was I confused, or felt left in the dark, or plopped into the middle of things. Small moments here and there fill in quite a few blanks; others just aren't that necessary (or perhaps are being saved for future books?) and there's plenty of mystery to take up the pages; the author doesn't need filler. The widowed Mrs Rodd works through her brother, a distinguished defence attorney, and is called upon to look into the background of a young window deemed thoroughly unsuitable by the rich father of the young man who wants to marry her. But unbeknownst to them all, there are far bigger problems blossoming for the family, and Mrs. Rodd finds herself in the thick of happenings rather diabolical. According to the author, readers of David Copperfield will recognise her inspiration for this book (I've not read DC). Whatever her inspiration, the characters and setting were pitch perfect and I just enjoyed every minute I spent with Mrs. Rodd and company. Although I sussed out the plot twist very early on, I was too engrossed in the read to notice or care, and the pace remained brisk from beginning to end. The only niggle I had is a small one: Mrs. Rodd is the widow of an archbishop, so there's every possibility that the heavily spiritual/religious bent to the narrative is just part of her character. It totally fits and it's never, ever preachy, but it's just dominant enough that it could also be the author using the book as a platform to evangelise and that possibility sours, just a tiny bit, what would have been my complete enthusiasm for the book. Thankfully, Mrs. Rodd remains smart, sensible, non-judgemental and with enough humour for the niggle to remain tiny. The cover implies this is the first of a new series; if so, I'll eagerly be in line to purchase the next one.
    • 4/5
      Thoroughly enjoyable. Very Dickensian, as advertised, with a wonderful main character in the person of the widowed Mrs. Rodd. Supporting characters also well drawn.
    • 5/5
      Laetitia Rodd, widow, ekes out a living as a discrete private investigator. Living in reduced circumstances with her landlady, she was never wealthy, having been married to an archdeacon. Her brother is a successful barrister with a lovely wife and many children. Through his connections, Laetitia is approached with a case. She masquerades as a governess to prevent a beloved son of a wealthy family from marrying a woman of lesser status. When things go wrong, Laetitia must solve the case to save him from the hangman’s noose. After a somewhat slow beginning, this novel takes off and grabs your attention as more details come to light and the characters evolve. Many twists along the way add to the suspense. A well-written mystery, faithful to its setting, with likeable and gentile characters. A great start to a new series.
    • 4/5
      It’s 1850 and 50-something widow Laetitia Rodd is longing for a new case. She’s a private investigator for her brother’s law firm – on the job when delicacy and discretion are called for. Pretty soon Frederick Tyson, said brother, has a case for her. Sir James Calderstone has a problem with his son Charles. Charles has fallen madly in love with a totally unsuitable woman. The family had hoped he’d marry his 2nd cousin but Charles insists he’s marrying Mrs. Helen Orme, the widow of a clergyman. Posing as a governess for the household’s two younger daughters, Letty moves in with the Calderstone family and starts her investigation. Letty’s late husband was a man of the cloth, and she has many friends in clerical circles – and she uses them to track down Mrs. Orme’s story. But soon she’s investigating a murder. Then multiple murders.As a widow, Letty has more freedom to move about in Victorian England than many other women do, and she’s a natural investigator who has good instincts. But instincts and intuition aren’t going to be enough to convict whoever is committing the murders. The blurb on the back of the book calls this a “new crime series that will immediately delight fans of Agatha Christie and Alexander McCall Smith.” I am fans of both, and I wouldn’t put this book into the same category at all. I would compare it, instead, to the Gaslight Mysteries by Victoria Thompson. I did enjoy the book and hope there are more in the series.
    • 4/5
      Have you ever read David Copperfield by Charles Dickens? If you had and wished for some exploration on the characters or some slight differences in their outcomes then I whole-heartedly suggest you read this tale. If you have never read David Copperfield then no worries, if you like crime, mystery and suspense then I also suggest this book to you.This book is touted as a new crime series and it is BUT what they are not touting is that this is a book about romance as well. I do not mean romance in the illicit sense; I mean that the underlying stories in this novel are all driven by love for good or bad. There is also the heartbreak of the widowed Laetitia Rodd, which was felt throughout the story. She loved her husband and misses him so and because of her experiences in love she views all the other interactions with the women that she sees through this lens. To me, it makes the story richer. Humans are driven by love and by lack of love and I like that the character is written in such a way that she can be compassionate to even the most vile of women because she can understand on a level what led them to their circumstances or situation.“My work could be described as the Management and Prevention of Scandal (my brother used to enjoy making up facetious advertisements for my services – ‘Blushes Spared and Broken Commandments Mended!’)” Laetitia Rodd is a clever sort of woman who uses intuition and spying to gather information for clients in her work as a private investigator. What could drive a woman in Victorian times to pursue a career as a PI? Well, after the death of her husband she was left near penniless and needed to find a way to support herself. Luckily she has a younger brother who is a barrister and recommends her for cases where discretion is advised for finding out the truth of the matter.It is due to this type of recommendation that Laetitia finds herself embroiled in a most unpleasant mystery that involves multiple murders all being orchestrated by an unknown master criminal that only goes by the moniker of “Prince.” True to fashion, this stubborn Victorian woman is not deterred by the circumstances and is bound and determined to bring this puppet master to justice. With the help of her brother, an inspector from the Metropolitan Police and her landlady, Mrs. Bentley, Laetitia is able to follow the trail of a murderer that is full of twists and turns and surprises. This story will keep you on your toes with suspense.There are truly no dull moments in this book and it is also a clean read. There are talks of scandals, adultery and harlots but it is all done without it being vulgar. All the characters are well fleshed out and even though this is most likely going to be a series, the ending is very tidy with no cliffhangers. I do not think that will be a deterrent for readers in not continuing the series though because Laetitia is a pip and they will want to see what she wanders into next. There is also the seeds of possibility of something with a certain inspector…it is after all a novel full of romantic notions. I highly recommend this book to all readers!*Thank you to Bloomsbury USA & NetGalley for this ARC of The Secrets of Wishtide*