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  • Published: 15 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9780099539490
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $32.99

The Sailor's Ransom

A Bella Wallis Mystery




Glamorous, glorious heroine Bella Wallis must investigate the case of an unhappy heiress and some mysterious pearls in her second thrilling Victorian mystery.

London is alive with gossip about the thrilling new book by sensationalist author Henry Ellis Margam, but only a select group of people know that the real author is beautiful widow, and member of high society, Bella Wallis.

One of her confidantes is the dashing Philip Westland, who comes to Bella now with a problem: his best friend Kennet is smitten with the heiress Mary Skillane but Mary's father, Sir William, has promised her to Robert Judd, a vulgar treasure-seeker. Mary is due to inherit the Skillane pearls, which are currently residing in a Cornsih bank vault, but it seems that the pearls were ill-gotten.

Can Bella and her friends reunite the young lovers and escape the attention of the villainous Judd?

  • Published: 15 July 2010
  • ISBN: 9780099539490
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 256
  • RRP: $32.99

About the author

Brian Thompson

Brian Thompson was born in London in 1935 and now lives in Oxford. He has written three volumes of memoir: Keeping Mum (2006), winner of the Costa Prize for Biography and the PEN/Ackerley Prize, Clever Girl (2007), longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, and A Corner of Paradise (2013). He is also the author of the Bella Wallis mystery series, also published by Chatto.

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Praise for The Sailor's Ransom

With a glorious heroine and wicked humour, Brian Thompson lays bare the sexual shenanigans and hypocrisy of Victorian England

John Harvey

The atmosphere is delicious, tangible, and irresistible. The dialogue is believably Victorian. And Bella Wallis is a joy to follow around through a few hundred pages

The Historical Novels Review