When a murder is staged at magnificent Knebworth House, Victorian writer-sleuths, Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins investigate.

August, 1856. Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens are spending the summer at Knebworth House, the magnificent Hertfordshire home of fellow writer Lord Edward Bulwer-Lytton, where they are putting on a charity performance of one of Lord Edward's most successful plays, The Lady of Lyon. But the dress rehearsal is disrupted by the discovery of a body lying in the centre of the stage, shot to death.

With everyone involved in the play coming under suspicion, the two writer-sleuths feel compelled to investigate. Their enquiries unearth a number of scandalous secrets lurking among the writers, artists and actors assembled at Knebworth. Secrets that stretch back more than twenty years. Secrets that will have devastating repercussions for the present.

An entertaining new entry in Harrison's enjoyable series starring fictional recreations of the two famous authors, with subtle humor, period ambience, skulduggery, larger-than-life characters, a clever plot, and a satisfying ending * Booklist *
An inspired premise and compelling characters make the third in this series the best to date * Kirkus Reviews *
Another strong entry in a series tailor-made for the Masterpiece crowd * Booklist on Winter of Despair *
Superior plotting and characterization ... Fans of Harrison's Burren mysteries will be pleased * Publishers Weekly on Winter of Despair *
A surprising conclusion, coupled with vivid characters, authentic period details, and a constantly zigzagging plot, makes this a good choice for fans of historical murder mysteries * Booklist on Season of Darkness *
The Victorian atmosphere is thick enough to cut with a knife. The real triumph is Harrison's Dickens: sublimely conceited, short-tempered, self-dramatizing, often bombastic * Kirkus Reviews on Season of Darkness *