Library Thief

Narrated by Florence herself, this novel opens with her confession of a scandal she once thought would end her life, and of a secret she vowed to take to her grave, though she admits she did not keep that vow. What she found in the library of Rose Hall overshadowed even the scandal.

The year is 1897. Florence was brought to England from Jamaica as a baby, and her bookbinder father had her hair hot-combed so she would look like the other girls. As a young woman she proves far harder to tame, and when she brings scandal to his door, he throws her out onto the streets of Manchester. She then intercepts his latest commission and talks her way into the remote, forbidding Rose Hall, where she is to restore a collection of rare books.

Lord Francis Belfield's library is old and full of secrets, but none so intriguing as the whispers about his late wife. Then one night the library is broken into, yet the priceless volumes are left untouched. Florence is baffled until she finds a half-burned book in the fireplace. To her horror, she realises someone has found the secret diary of Lord Belfield's wife and tried to destroy it, and it may hold the key to what became of her.