The year is 1902. The place is New York City. It is a world of huge mansions and society balls, but only footsteps away are the city's darkest back alleyways. It is a time of glamour and wealth—scandal and corruption. One cold winter night, a little boy is kidnapped from his own bed while his parents attend a neighbor's elegant ball. And Francesca Cahill, the daughter of the soiree's host, stumbles across the ransom note. Determined to help in any way she can, Francesca soon is involved in the high profile police investigation—while helpelessly falling in love with New York City's newly appointed police commissioner, the powerful and enigmatic Rick Bragg. Francesca and Bragg begin to search for the answers to a shocking crime. At stake is a little boy's life. As the duo is plunged into a web of corruption, secrets, and lies, Francesca's own life begins to slowly but surely unravel—until a series of stunning truths are revealed, each taking her more deeply into the heart of true danger and even truer passion...

Brenda Joyce has enthralled millions of readers with her New York Times bestselling novels. Now, join us in the next chapter of her unforgettable the Francesca Cahill novels. Step into the glittering world of New York City's high society at the turn of the last century, where murder and pleasure are one and the same, and love becomes the ultimate weapon... Francesca Cahill comes from one of New York's best families. Her mother is a leading socialite, her father, a millionaire. Their expectations for their daughter are simple—marry well, and soon. But the intrepid and self-styled "Crime-Solver Extraordinaire" has other plans... Francesca discovered she had a penchant for sleuthing when she met Rick Bragg, New York City's powerful and enigmatic Police Commissioner. Together, they solved what was known as the crime of the century. Now, their paths are destined to come together once again, but this time far more dangerously and fatefully. For Francesca is tempted to give in to the desire she and Rick have been resisting. And when Bragg's arch-rival Calder Hart arrives in town, a respectable man is suddenly found dead, and now murder is the name of the game...

Brenda Joyce has enthralled millions of readers with her New York Times bestselling novels. Now, join us in the next chapter of her unforgettable storytelling: the Francesca Cahill novels. Enter the glittering world of turn-of-the-century New York City, where a metropolis booming with life also masks a dark world of danger, death, and daring desire... As the heiress to a vast fortune amassed by her millionaire father, Francesca Cahill's life should be mapped out for her: find an eligible suitor, marry, and have children. But Francesca is an unconventional young lady who is not about to give up her knack for sleuthing—even though it brings her closer to danger than she ever could imagine. Murder strikes once again in the seamy underbelly of New York's high society, exposing scandalous secrets and unleashing an intense investigation into one of the most brutal crimes the city has ever known. Innocent women are being murdered, and there seems to be a strange connection between them. Can Francesca unravel the clues? Or by doing so, will she place herself and other women in grave jeopardy? Francesca must join forces with Rick Bragg, New York City's Police Commissioner and the man she cannot resist loving, as their search takes them through a twisted labyrinth of menacing lies, corruption, and a passion that refused to be denied.

The time is turn-of-the-century New York City. Society's elite host glittering balls inside sprawling mansions while outside, the teeming street harbor secrets of their own. New York City's Police Commissioner Rick Bragg has been called upon to investigate a shocking crime. Reluctant to pull Francesca into a case that could be very dangerous, Rick also knows the beautiful and brilliant heiress has a natural ability for sleuthing that could aid him—even it if means working side by side with a woman who tempts him like no other. And so Franscesca and Rick begin a harrowing journey through the squalid underworld of the city that plunges them deeper and deeper in a peril neither could have imagined—and a desire that only continues to grow...

Brenda Joyce's New York Times best-selling novels have thrilled millions of readers. Now, in her latest Francesca Cahill novel, return to the lush mansions and teeming streets of New York City's Gilded Age, where intrigue and seduction lie on every corner... The year is 1902. The place is New York City. A famous stage actress has been found strangled in an artist's studio, and the artist herself has vanished. Francesca Cahill, the city's most unconventional heiress and famous amateur sleuth, is once again on the case-for the murder victim is none other than her brother's mistress. And when the sole witness to the crime is also found strangled and only one clue is left behind-a silk stocking-it becomes evident that a madman is on the loose. Now more than ever, Francesca is determined to find The City Strangler and bring him to justice. But the trail is a twisted one, and she'll need the help of handsome, dynamic Police Commissioner, Rick Bragg-even though she must attempt to end their star-crossed romantic liaison. But now, she also finds herself fending off the advances of his notorious rival, his powerful half-brother, Calder Hart. Ruthlessly pursued by Hart, hopelessly enamored with Bragg, Francesca races against the clock before The City Strangler strikes again, never realizing the consequences that will come when danger and desire become one...

It is March of 1902, and Francesca Cahill-Fifth Avenue heiress, undaunted political activist and intrepid amateur sleuth-has just learned of a grave new danger haunting the streets of New York. A beautiful teenage girl named Emily O'Hare is missing and Francesca fears that the girl has been abducted. Only one person can help her learn the child's fate-but Police Commissioner Rick Bragg may not want to get involved because Francesca has just stunned Rick by accepting a proposal of marriage...from none other than his own rival. Francesca still questions her decision to marry the powerful and notorious Calder Hart. But Rick Bragg is wed to another...and his dazzling wife has just returned after four years abroad to reclaim their marriage. Francesca remains torn between the two very different men-but she desperately tries to set aside the affairs of her heart when she discovers that Emily isn't the first girl to vanish in recent weeks. And when Francesca discovers a trail of deception and lies, when someone very close to her investigation is murdered, Francesca realizes that the evil force behind the girls' abductions may try to find a way to silence her too-if she dares to uncover the truth...

Irrepressible heiress and intrepid sleuth Francesca Cahill moves from her own elegant world of Fifth Avenue to the teeming underbelly of society, a place of pride, passions...and sometimes deadly perversions. Despite the misgivings of her fiancé, Calder Hart, Francesca cannot turn away from a threat that is terrorizing the tenement neighborhood of Lower Manhattan. A madman has attacked three women, but while the first two victims survived, the third is dead, raising the stakes. All the victims are impoverished but beautiful Irishwomen—and Francesca fears that Maggie Kennedy and Gwen O'Neil, two friends who live nearby, could be next. Soon she is working with her former love, police commisioner Rick Bragg—Calder's half brother and worst rival. But even as Calder's jealous passions leave his relationship with Francesca teetering on the brink, Francesca is frantically on the killer's trail, certain The Slasher will strike again—afraid she will be too late.

"I did not kill anyone, Francesca. And the fact that you wish to destroy evidence suggests you think me capable of murder." Called to the home of her fiancé Calder Hart's former mistress late one night, amateur sleuth Francesca Cahill's curiosity is piqued. But upon arrival, she is shocked to find Daisy Jones' bloodied body—and even more devastated when the evidence points to one suspect: Calder. Francesca cannot—will not—believe that Calder is capable of such an act. Still, she is unable to shake her instinctive sense that Calder is lying about something. The police are far less inclined to believe his innocence, and Calder is arrested for Daisy's murder. But Francesca's heart is not easily swayed . . . until a life-altering secret is exposed that could destroy their future together.

On the morning of her wedding to Calder Hart, amateur sleuth Francesca Cahill is lured away to a private viewing of the one thing that can destroy her whole family: a nude painting of her. Her desperate quest to find the indecent portrait and preserve her family’s reputation leads her into a dangerous thief’s trap with no way to escape until it’s too late. Her wedding is ruined—and so is the trust and love that Calder once felt for her. Then the damning painting goes missing. Scouring the sordid streets of Manhattan, Francesca is on the hunt for answers; who is the perverse sociopath responsible for stealing the scandalous portrait? How can she regain her place in Calder’s heart? And is their passionate love affair well and truly over?