Marion Lane and the Deadly Rose

London, 1959. A killer known as the Florist brands a rose onto each of his victims, and the official police have no leads. Scotland Yard turns again to the Inquirers of Miss Brickett's, a secret detective agency that works underground, and the case goes to second-year agent Marion Lane.

Marion has a puzzle nearer to home as well. A letter with no signature tells her that one of the three newest recruits at the agency cannot be trusted, and she has no way of knowing which.

Then a new internal group, the Employee Rights and Protection Society, circulates a handbook that exposes classified secrets about Miss Brickett's. Marion is ordered to infiltrate the group.

Inside, she learns that the Florist and his accomplices belong to a much larger international conspiracy, one with reach into the agency itself.

This is the second book in the Marion Lane historical mystery series, following Marion Lane and the Midnight Murder. It pairs period detective work with an inventive, gadget-filled setting that is slightly fantastical.