Sealed Message

A message encoded on a phonograph record, sealed away in a cylinder for years, holds secrets that someone died to protect. When young Dorothy Selby is placed under the guard of the sinister Mr. Grimsby, her quiet country house becomes a gilded cage. She lives in comfort, but comfort is not freedom, and the strange visitors who arrive after her guardian's murder suggest that Dorothy herself may be the prize everyone seeks. It falls to the intrepid Frank Stevens to untangle the sealed message's meaning, expose the killer, and rescue the heroine from a fate far darker than any fairy tale. Hume weaves Victorian mystery with the breathless logic of a puzzle box, each revelation pulling his characters deeper into danger. The result is a ripping adventure that recalls the gothic sensibilities of Wilkie Collins with a hero who acts as quickly as he thinks. For readers who crave suspense wrapped in old-world charm, where nothing is as it seems and every clue might save a life or end one.