Description

London, 1890. The society wedding of the season ends in scandal when Lady Charlotte Wyndham vanishes hours before she is to marry the wealthy Lord Edmund Mulberry. A ransom note demands £10,000 for her safe return. Scotland Yard suspects a daring kidnapping.

Sherlock Holmes suspects something else entirely.

Within hours, Holmes has deduced the truth: Charlotte orchestrated her own disappearance. She cut her hair, donned men's clothing, and vanished into London's anonymous crowds. But why would a gently-bred lady abandon her family, her reputation, and her future?

The answer lies in a bundle of letters hidden in a secret compartment—letters written by Mulberry's first wife in the weeks before her death. Lady Margaret Mulberry's words paint a portrait of escalating terror: a charming suitor transformed into a controlling husband, romantic attention turned to violent possession, and a final, desperate warning: "If anything should happen to me, it was not an accident."

Margaret died two years ago, her neck broken at the bottom of the grand marble staircase. The coroner ruled it an accidental fall. Charlotte has read the letters. She knows it was murder. And she knows she will be next.

Now Holmes and Watson must navigate a dangerous game—gathering evidence against a killer protected by wealth and powerful connections, while keeping Charlotte hidden from a man who considers her his property. When Mulberry's hunt for his runaway bride leads to a midnight confrontation in a fog-shrouded warehouse, Holmes will discover that some mysteries cannot be solved in a courtroom.

In Victorian England, a wife belongs to her husband by law. But justice sometimes demands that we break the rules to protect the innocent.

The Case of the Vanishing Bride is a Sherlock Holmes pastiche that explores domestic violence, women's agency, and the courage required to escape gilded cages.