When her friend is falsely accused of murder, Oxford-educated Belgravian heiress and suffragette Ursula Marlow pursues answers that reveal her own late father's unsettling ties to the case, during which she seeks help from her father's trusted counselor, Lord Oliver Wrotham. A first novel.

A gripping mystery of scandal and intrigue starring a spirited and beautiful Edwardian heiress It?s the end of 1911 and Ursula Marlow, struggling to maintain control over her father?s textile empire, finds her business trip to Egypt interrupted by two violent deaths. The first victim is her new friend, Katya?the mysterious wife of a wealthy Russian financier. Then when a young woman dies in a fire in one of Ursula?s factories just days later, she returns to investigate and discovers the woman was already dead before the fire started. Driven by her need for justice, the headstrong Ursula is determined to unravel the possible connection between the two deaths, the return of her Bolshevik ex-lover, and disturbing events in the Middle East. The Serpent and the Scorpion is a tale of romance, betrayal, and murder that will appeal to fans of Elizabeth Peters, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Jacqueline Winspear.

Ursula Marlow thought she was done with death, but when her fiancé, Lord Wrotham, is arrested on charges of treason, her world is turned upside down. It is the winter of 1913, and the British Parliament, unsettled on the question of Home Rule for Ireland, is shaken over allegations of a plot to sell naval military secrets to Kaiser’s Germany and liberate Ireland from English rule. For the first time, Ursula must work together with Chief Inspector Harrison to uncover the truth about Lord Wrotham’s involvement, as well as his mysterious past. As the investigation continues, Ursula is drawn into the shadowy world of the Irish Republican Brotherhood and a web of espionage and betrayal. She must race against time to clear Lord Wrotham’s name and thwart a plot that threatens not only British national security, but also her life.