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Death and the Sisters, a new historical mystery by Heather Redmond

Author Guest Post + Book and Author Info

Death and the Sisters

The tangled relationships between Frankenstein author Mary Shelley, poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Mary’s stepsister Jane Clairmont form the backdrop for an intriguing historical mystery, set in London in 1814, that explores the complex dynamic between sisters and the birth of teenaged Mary’s creative genius.

London, 1814: Mary Godwin and her stepsister Jane Clairmont, both sixteen, possess quick minds bolstered by an unconventional upbringing, and have little regard for the rules that other young ladies follow. Mary, whose mother famously advocated for women’s rights, rejects the two paths that seem open to her—that of an assistant in her father’s bookshop, or an ordinary wife. Though quieter and more reserved than the boisterous Jane, Mary’s imagination is keen, and she longs for real-world adventures.

One evening, an opportunity arrives in the form of a dinner guest, Percy Bysshe Shelley. At twenty-one, Shelley is already a renowned poet and radical. Mary finds their visitor handsome and compelling, but it is later that evening, after the party has broken up, that events take a truly intriguing turn. When Mary comes downstairs in search of a book, she finds instead a man face down on the floor—with a knife in his back.

The dead man, it seems, was a former classmate of Shelley’s, and had lately become a personal and professional rival. What was he doing in the Godwins’ home? Mary, Jane, and Shelley are all drawn to learn the truth behind the tragedy, especially as each discovery seems to hint at a tangled web that includes many in Shelley’s closest circle. But as the attraction between Mary and the married poet intensifies, it sparks a rivalry between the sisters, even as it kindles the creative fire within . . .

Genre: Historical mystery
Published by: Kensington
Publication Date: September 2023
Number of Pages: 320
ISBN: 9781496737991 (ISBN10: 1496737997)
Series: Mary Shelley Mystery, 1
To purchase Death and the Sisters, click any of the following links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | Kensington

Guest Post by Heather Redmond, Author of Death and the Sisters

Sibling Rivalry Can Drive a Story

By Heather Redmond

Mary Shelley and her stepsister, Jane Clairmont, are the main characters of my new mystery series, which kicks off with Death and the Sisters. I’ve discovered that most people know little about the author of Frankenstein, but she lived a fascinating life with a family just as interesting as her.

Born in 1797, Mary’s birth cost her mother, feminist philosopher and novelist Mary Wollstonecraft, her life. Mary’s father was anarchist philosopher and novelist William Godwin. William and Mary, just thirty-eight, had only been married for eight months before childbed fever took her eleven days after her baby was born.

While these weren’t people who particularly believed in marriage, they recognized the constructs of the society they lived in as they left their youths behind. They had married in order to make their unborn child legitimate. Wollstonecraft already had an illegitimate daughter, Fanny. 3 ¼ years older than Mary.

William, already over forty, immediately tried to find another wife, but was unsuccessful until Mary was four. He then married his next-door neighbor, French translator Mary Jane, who had two illegitimate children, Charles and Jane Clairmont, who were half siblings. This marriage led to five children being raised in the same household, none of whom were full siblings.

As they attempted to make their precarious living, they moved to a run-down house with no rent payment, in a neighborhood of prisons. Mary missed her old neighborhood, and all of them suffered health issues. Everyone traveled in the family for periods of time, to get away from London.

Resources were scarce, and this created a life-long rivalry between Mary and Jane. Jane and Charles had more money spent on them than Fanny and Mary. Jane had more education and music lessons. Charles was educated expensively in the book business. Fanny had an interest in education, but spent her time running the house and waiting on her stepfather. Mary and Jane seemed to have a future as shopgirls for the family bookshop. In that era, nothing better could be hoped for, when women could only be wives, teachers, governesses, or companions. The girls were not raised to want material things or marriage.

The Godwins were in a great deal of debt and lived outside of their means. One key tenant of Godwinian philosophy was that it was fine to accept money from others if you had none, which led to him demanding and begging for money. It later led to scandal, as it was rumored that he had sold Mary and Jane to nobleman Percy Bysshe Shelley for money to pay his never-ending debts. The optics were terrible, to be sure, after the events of summer 1814 when Mary and Jane ran away to France with the married man.

That spring though, beautiful Mary was closing in on her seventeenth birthday. She’d already had two suitors before Percy Bysshe Shelley entered her life. Jane, less mature and used to getting her way, simply wanted attention, and Percy treated her like a little sister. Both wanted his time. He seemed to offer it equally.

When Mary finds the body of a young man in their bookshop one night, she thinks Shelley has been killed. When Jane joins her and they realize Shelley isn’t dead, Jane thinks Shelley probably killed the youth, while Mary staunchly believes in his innocence. This difference in opinion impacts their ability to solve the murder, which has damaged the reputation of their family even further.

Mary has found the person she wants to spend time with. Shelley’s marriage doesn’t matter to her. She knows he is estranged with his wife, or at least thinks she knows it. Jane, having lost Mary’s attention, attempts to find a new friend, but she’s also holding onto a few secrets of her own.

Both wanting to escape each other, the reality is that they are hopelessly intertwined. They even battle over their roles as heir to Mary Wollstonecraft, Mary’s mother, who neither of them really knew. Jane considers herself the spiritual heir to Wollstonecraft’s life and philosophy, if not a biological one. She’s the true free spirit, whereas Mary is more conventional.

The fight with Jane for resources from family, lovers, and friends will continue for the rest of Mary’s life. It puts them both in danger as the choices they make attract the attention of a murderer.

I use the contrasting points of view of both girls to drive my novel. Welcome to the amazing world of anarchist poets and novelists in Regency England.

Heather Redmond, Author of Death and the Sisters

Heather Redmond is an author of commercial fiction and also writes as Heather Hiestand. First published in mystery, she took a long detour through romance before returning. Though her last British ancestor departed London in the 1920s, she is a committed anglophile, Dickens devotee, and lover of all things nineteenth century.

She has lived in Illinois, California, and Texas, and now resides in a small town in Washington State with her husband and son. The author of many novels, novellas, and short stories, she has achieved best-seller status at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other retailers. Her 2018 Heather Redmond debut, A Tale of Two Murders, has received a coveted starred review from Kirkus Reviews.

To learn more about Heather, click on any of the following links: www.HeatherRedmond.com, Goodreads, BookBub – @heatherredmond1, Instagram – @hiestandheather, Twitter – @heatheraredmond & Heather Hiestand Redmond’s Reader Group on Facebook

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