The exiles

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Victoria Hinshaw

SHE NEEDED A WEALTHY HUSBAND... Blissfully unaware of what Fate holds in store, Miss Caroline Parker has happily spent her days training her beloved ponies and ignoring more ladylike pursuits. But her carefree country life comes to an abrupt halt when her widowed mother insists she embark upon a London Season for the express purpose of snaring a well-heeled husband. Suddenly, the spirited beauty is thrust into a world of glittering balls and elegant soirees with no hope of rescue in sight...until she meets a dashing young captain who seems to understand her dilemma implicitly, a man who becomes her staunchest ally overnight... HE NEEDED A WELL-TO-DO WIFE... On the battlefield, Thomas Ogden had acquitted himself with courage, and he'd brought home the way wounds to prove it. But now, faced with the prospect of trolling the marriage mart for a rich wife, he is filled with foreboding. Thank goodness for Caroline. Becoming her partner in this business of finding a mate makes life tolerable, even pleasurable...Until Thomas realizes he's finding fault with every man Caroline flirts with...until he discovers he's harbouring a desire to do violence to every man who asks her to dance...until he begins to sense that he will never accept any man as Caroline's husband...any man but himself...

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W.B. Yeats

Unsigned binding design by Althea Gyles in gold on smooth dark blue cloth. Includes frontispiece and 6 b/w illustrations after John Butler Yeats (the author's father). A collection of 17 short stories blending Irish with Rosicrucian characters and themes. Gyles' masterpiece shows influences of both the Pre-Raphaelite and Symbolist movements. The front cover design is the Tree of Life, with its roots entwined in the skeleton of a dead knight and its crown displaying three roses (echoing the central rose representing a 'rosy cross' at the tree's 'heart'), The tree is composed of Celtic interlace that culminates in an image of kissing lovers. The spine design is that of Lug's spear (symbol of desire) enwreathed with poppies and immersed in a bowl of sleeping potion. The design on the rear cover is of the alchemical rose, a rose-cross contained in a diamond-like configuration of pointed spears and a circle (a 'squared circle'). Second binding issue, on smooth rather than ribbed cloth with publisher "A.H. Bullen" at the base of the spine. There were thought to be approximately 1000 copies of this issue. Althea Gyles (1868-1949) was a gifted artist, designer and poet who studied at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. She met W. B. Yeats in 1891, and became, with Yeats, an adherent of the Order of the Golden Dawn, an organization devoted to the study and practice of the occult, metaphysics, and paranormal activities. Gyles' works in Symbolism derive from the cabalistic iconography of the Golden Dawn's second order of Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis (the Ruby Rose and Cross of Gold). Her ability to use abstract means to express the truth as she saw it, makes her work one of the vanguards of Modernism. Gyles is best known for her binding designs for Yeats including The Secret Rose (1897), Poems (1899) and The Wind Among the Reeds (1899). -- Austin Abbey Rare Books.

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Kathleen Baldwin

Tess Aubreyson is being haunted by prophetic dreams of death and grief. She discovers that her dreams can help Lord Ravencross, the man she loves, and her fellow students at Stranje House. Which is good, because the traitorous Lady Daneska and the Ghost have returned to England to help make way for Napoleon's invasion, and the young ladies at Stranje House might be the only ones who can save England from a power-mad dictator.

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Molly Caldwell Crosby

In the summer of 1913, under the cover of London's perpetual smoggy dusk, two brilliant minds are pitted against each other -- a celebrated gentleman thief and a talented Scotland Yard detective -- in the greatest jewel heist of the new century. An exquisite strand of pale pink pearls, worth more than the Hope Diamond, has been bought by a Hatton Garden broker. Word of the "Mona Lisa of Pearls" spreads around the world, captivating jewelers as well as thieves. In transit to London from Paris, the necklace vanishes without a trace. Joseph Grizzard, "the King of Fences," is the charming leader of a vast gang of thieves in London's East End. Grizzard grew up on the streets of Whitechapel during the terror of Jack the Ripper to rise to the top of the criminal world. Wealthy, married, and a father, Grizzard still cannot resist the sport of crime, and the pearl necklace proves an irresistible challenge. Inspector Alfred Ward patrols the city's dark, befogged streets before joining the brand-new division of the Metropolitan Police known as "detectives." Ward earns his stripes catching some of the great murderers of Victorian London and, at the height of his career, is asked to turn his forensic talents to finding the missing pearls and the thief who stole them. In the spirit of The Great Train Robbery and the tales of Sherlock Holmes, this is the true story of a psychological cat-and-mouse game set against the backdrop of London's golden Edwardian era. Thoroughly researched, compellingly colorful, The Great Pearl Heist is a gripping narrative account of this little-known, yet extraordinary crime. - Jacket flap.