Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter

Her father was legend. His death was murder. Madeline Payne, raised in the shadow of the great detective known as 'Payne, the Expert,' lost her father before she could walk. When her mother died, the girl was left to the mercy of a calculating stepfather who had married for money and cared nothing for the child who stood between him and an inheritance. Madeline did what no Victorian lady was supposed to do: she became a detective herself. Armed with her father's legacy and driven by fury at the man who broke her mother, she carved out a life of investigation and, eventually, revenge. But as she grows closer to the enigmatic Lucian Davlin, she discovers that truth and love are far more dangerous than any case she's ever worked. This is a novel about a woman who refused to be powerless in a world designed to keep her that way. It's Victorian suspense wrapped around a feminist heart, with enough romance and betrayal to keep you turning pages past midnight.