Child Lost

Clive is growing restless, so he presses Sergeant Frank Davis for something to investigate. The request sends him and Henrietta to a spiritualist known as Madame Pavlovsky, who hosts séances in an abandoned schoolhouse at the edge of town. Police suspect her of cheating her wealthy clients out of their money. The case looks simple until Henrietta starts to take the medium's rambling remarks seriously.

Elsie, meanwhile, is searching for Liesel Klinkhammer, a German immigrant who has gone missing. Liesel is also the mother of Anna, a little girl now in the care of Gunther, with whom Elsie is beginning a tentative romance. Elsie turns to her sister and Clive for help, and their search leads to Dunning Asylum, where they learn what became of Liesel.

When Anna has a seizure and is wrongly committed to Dunning, Clive and Henrietta hurry to get her out. Henrietta, however, becomes convinced that something sinister is happening within the asylum's dim corridors. Clive does not share her suspicions, so she pursues the matter on her own, and the consequences are grave. The question running through the book is whether she can uncover the truth before the asylum's walls close in on her.

The novel will appeal to readers who enjoy historical mysteries with a gothic asylum, a missing person, a mysterious spiritualist, and a vulnerable orphan in danger. Its romance is a forbidden romance across class lines, developed slowly, and its themes include grief and healing. Clive and Henrietta are a married pair of sleuths. Readers who enjoyed Downton Abbey and its 1930s atmosphere are a natural audience, and the book is part of a series.