The first in a new mystery series that reimagines Sherlock Holmes’s mother and her lady’s-maid-turned-investigative-partner.

‘Some problems simply merit solving, Mrs Hudson’

Heart-broken, widowed, and penniless, Katherine Hudson never wished to become a lady’s maid to the eccentric Violet Holmes, mother of a precocious seven-year-old Sherlock. To keep her beloved family out of the poorhouse, Hudson trades her telegraphic career for a job in service, just like the one that cost her father his life. She quickly discovers, though, that working for the recently widowed Lady Holmes demands far more than learning the latest hairstyles. Instead, she engages in a most scandalous and unladylike activity: investigations.

With a talent for spotting lies and a heart as big as her mouth, Hudson despises everything Lady Holmes stands for, but a village boy is missing and the clock’s ticking. And when someone forges the signature of Hudson’s deceased husband and a body shows up on the Holmes estate, the police try to pin it all on her.

To stay out of jail, save the missing boy, and protect her family, Hudson will need to dodge her budding feelings for Lady Holmes and survive long enough to unravel the secret her father may have died to protect.

The Last Telegram of Mrs Hudson is the first in a fun, fast-paced and feminist historical crime series, perfect for fans of the The Mitford Murders by Jessica Fellowes, the Miss Clara Vale Mysteries by Fiona Veitch Smith and Miss Austen Investigates by Jessica Bull.