Lee Jackson (British) Books In Order

The Last Pleasure Garden

From the bestselling author of London Dust and The Welfare of the Dead: another Inspector Decimus Webb crime mystery, in which readers are guided through the dark alleys and gaslit parlours of nineteenth century London.

A Most Dangerous Woman

Lee Jackson returns with a new lady detective, in the first of a gripping series set in 1850s London. When the mysterious Sarah Tanner opens her Dining and Coffee Rooms on the corner of Leather Lane and Liquorpond Street, her arrival amongst the poor market traders creates a stir. Few doubt that she has a past, but no one can possibly predict how it will return to haunt her. When an old friend is brutally murdered by the unlikeliest of assailants, Sarah Tanner is the only witness. Unable to turn to the police, she reluctantly finds herself drawn back into the dark underworld of the Victorian metropolis. Assisted by unlikely friends, dogged by the criminal machinations of the greatest gamester, felon, villain, swindler, and scoundrel in London, she must unravel a web of treachery and deceit that takes her from the gaming hells of Regent Street to the suburban heights of Upper Holloway, from the slums of St. Giles to the fast flowing waters of the Thames. Relying on her wits and trading on her past, Sarah Tanner risks gambling her own life upon a desperate quest for justice and vengeance.

The Mesmerist’s Apprentice

When the enigmatic Sarah Tanner re opens her Dining and Coffee Rooms soon after a disastrous fire, the gossips of Leather Lane grudgingly admit she has the luck of the devil. Yet when a local butcher is falsely accused of a heinous offence selling horsemeat it seems her luck has run out. Drawn into an evermore dangerous series of confrontations with a gang of youths who seem determined to put an innocent man out of business, Sarah Tanner’s own livelihood looks set for ruin into the bargain.

But what links the persecution of a humble butcher with a certain Dr. Stead a leading practitioner of the strange art of mesmerism and a desperate plea from Sarah s former lover, the aristocrat Arthur De Salle? As Sarah Tanner investigates, she increasingly fears that the mesmerist, patronized by the highest society, is a charlatan and his latest patient, the unwitting victim of a grotesque fraud.

To preserve a family s honour, Sarah sets out upon a trail of suicide, murder, deception and deceit stretching from the alleys of Leather Lane to the drawing rooms of Mayfair.

Victorian London

Victorian London is a guide to the London of this period, and the glorious evidence that remains in London’s landscape and today’s society. Lee Jackson is an entertaining guide who relates his detailed knowledge of many aspects of the social history of the period: architecture, popular culture, education, crime and punishment,

A Dictionary of Victorian London

From slums to suburbs, freak shows to fast food, prisons to po*rnography, ‘A Dictionary of Victorian London‘ is a fascinating expos of everyday life in the Great Metropolis of Victorian London. Compiling authentic nineteenth century voices from a multitude of sources, including advertiseme*nts, diaries, court cases, journalism and guidebooks, Lee Jackson paints a unique picture of life in a vibrant and diverse city in an alphabetical guide. With striking contemporary illustrations throughout, this is a must read for anyone interested in the remarkable history of London and the enthralling lives of the Victorians.