Darkwood Mysteries (5): The Peacock Cabal

The Peacock CabalDarkwood's latest patient is a young man drained of vitality. He is soon dead. He is not the first to suffer such a fate. What killed him? Men of the green carnation—men who love men—are dying and the secrecy surrounding their love hides the cause. Darkwood finds the truth, not in medicine, but in her patient's tomb. Darkwood and Hobbs discover a conspiracy and a sinister predatory threat... The Darkwood MysteriesEmily Darkwood is already resisting the expectations Victorian society places upon women of the upper classes when, in the wake of her parents' disappearance, she receives a strange and life-changing inheritance: a stone of amber that draws her into supernatural, cosmic, and criminal mysteries. Armed with this guidestone, her wits, revolver, sword-stick umbrella, and faithful servant-companion, the streetwise, scrappy, and young Jack Hobbs, Darkwood sets out to uncover the origin of the stone, its power, and its connection to her parents—and their fate. Yet dark forces circle the stone, seeking its power for themselves. Darkwood and Hobbs determine to stand against them in their relentless pursuit of answers, but in doing so, they risk everything they hold dear.The Darkwood Mysteries are a series of short-stories, novellas, and novels that can largely be enjoyed as standalone tales of horror and adventure from any point, or together in order as part of a deeper mystery.The Peacock Cabal is a short story in the series.