A Victorian novel of romance and suspense

My passion for writing history has always been about diverse characterisation and memorable, atmospheric settings.  When beginning my London Life series during the Victorian era there was no greater master of that period than Dickens.  The images of those lives and times are carved in his readers' minds.  As a writer we cannot be true to characters unless with each of them the writer makes themself walk a mile in their shoes. 

In this series I notonly had to get the research of each setting right but to build the conflict and suspense I had to get the pyschology and motivation right. 

I loved writing this series and have always been intrigued by how secrets from the past can never be forever locked in their closets.  When they escape the potential for the dramas they unleash is unlimited.

INNOCENCE BETRAYED is the story of two sisters separated as children and raised in very different lifestyles - one of privilege, the other of squalor.  Can they learn to trust and overcome past grievances and be reunited as a family, or will jealousy and resentment destroy them both?  For innocense once betrayed can never be regained.

Kara Wyse, the daughter of a wealthy merchant, is shocked when her father is arrested for debt and commits suicide.  Her life changes drastically. Gacing poverty she also learns that the mother she had believed dead is still alive and that she was cast out of the family home by her father. Kara also learns that she has a younger sister, Beatrice, whose childhood has been very different from her own.

Kara is determined that her family will be reunited and that she will survive the scandal of her father's suicide and succeed as a businesswoman.

Beatrice has been brought up in poverty and squalor and to survive has become a pickpocket and the mistress of Fancy Gilbert a dangerous gangleader of the London Underworld. When Kara unwittingly marries the man that Beatrice loves, the younger woman vows that her sister will pay for all the wrongs that she has suffered by her poverty.

A captivating story of survival over adverstity, the righting of past wrongs and the redemptive power of love.  INNOCENCE BETRAYED is a fast moving and compulsive suspense novel of the diverse lifestyles existing in Edwardian London.  It tells of the darker side of kinship, revenge and retribution - and the redemptive power of love.

Innocence Betrayed - 'a very good read. Exciting and full of emotion.'  Harry Bowling