The Red Monarch

Teeming with details of the Brontës, of the times and the city, this is such a pleasurable read - NB Magazine

Captivating - Crime Monthly

Filled with twists, turns and Gothic touches, and a strong feminist streak - Bradford Telegraph

The Brontë sisters' first poetry collection has just been published, potentially marking an end to their careers as amateur detectives, when Anne receives a letter from her former pupil Lydia Robinson.

Lydia has eloped with a young actor, Harry Roxby, and following her disinheritance, the couple has been living in poverty in London. Harry has become embroiled with a criminal gang and is in terrible danger after allegedly losing something very valuable that he was meant to deliver to their leader. The desperate and heavily pregnant Lydia has a week to return what her husband supposedly stole, or he will be killed. She knows there are few people she can turn to in this time of need, but the sisters agree to help Lydia, beginning a race against time to save Harry's life.

In doing so, our intrepid sisters come face to face with a terrifying adversary whom even the toughest of the slum-dwellers are afraid of... The Red Monarch.

Praise for Bella Ellis and the series:

Evocative and utterly enchanting - Sarah Hilary

Bella Ellis is a very special talent - Angela Clarke

Brilliantly entertaining and original - C.L. Taylor

More heart-warming than blood-chilling - Sunday Express

Ellis's writing flows beautifully - Yorkshire Magazine

Elegant, witty and compulsively readable - I think the Brontë sisters would have been delighted - Rosie Walsh

A breath-taking concept... Fun, charming and intriguing - Araminta Hall

A delight - Wall Street Journal