The Concordia Wells Mysteries
Set in a fictitious 1890s women’s college in Hartford, Connecticut, the series features Miss Concordia Wells, a young lady professor who cannot seem to resist a little unseemly sleuthing when those she cares about are at risk. Who knew higher education could be such a dangerous endeavor?
Library Journal honors the best self-published ebooks in the genres of Romance, Mystery, Science Fiction, and Fantasy. The Concordia Wells Mysteries have been accepted into LJ’s “select” SELF-e collection!
Dangerous and Unseemly
Book 1 of the Concordia Wells Mysteries
Awarded Best in the Mystery category by Library Journal!
An unseemly lesson…in murder
The year is 1896, and Professor Concordia Wells has her hands full–teaching classes, acting as live-in chaperone to a cottage of lively female students, and directing the student play, Macbeth.
But mystery and murder are not confined to the stage. Malicious pranks, arson, money troubles, and the apparent suicide of a college official create turmoil at the women’s college. For Concordia, tragedy becomes personal when a family member dies of a mysterious illness, and her best friend is attacked and left for dead.
With her friend still in danger and her beloved school facing certain ruin, Concordia knows that she must act. But uncovering secrets is a dangerous business, and there are some who do not appreciate the unseemly inquiries and bold actions of the young lady professor. Can she discover the ones responsible…before she becomes the next target?
DANGEROUS AND UNSEEMLY is the first adventure in the CONCORDIA WELLS MYSTERIES, featuring 1890s professor-turned-amateur-sleuth Concordia Wells.
Click on one of the links below to start reading:
Amazon (Kindle and paperback)
Dangerous and Unseemly, now in audiobook form
Produced and Narrated by Becket Royce
Listen to the sample:
Buy the audiobook!
Unseemly Pursuits
Book 2 of the Concordia Wells Mysteries
A deadly secret that won’t stay buried…
It is the fall of 1896, and Miss Concordia Wells is hip-deep in the usual tumult of a lady professor’s life: classes, clubs, student pranks, and the unending drama generated by the girls she lives with on campus. Complicating this normality is the new Lady Principal, whom the students have nicknamed “the Ogre.” The woman seems bent on making Concordia’s life miserable.
And then there’s the exotic spirit medium, Madame Durand, who has befriended Concordia’s mother and has started a “Spirit Club” on campus. Madame’s prognostications of doom are at first only mildly irritating – until events take a sobering turn. An ancient Egyptian amulet donated to the college mysteriously disappears, the donor is found murdered, and his daughter – Concordia’s best friend – confesses to killing him.
Desperate for answers, Concordia unravels a 20-year-old secret, closely guarded by men now dead. But such secrets can be dangerous for the daughters left behind, including Concordia herself. Can she make sense of the mystery that has bound together their fates, before it’s too late?
UNSEEMLY PURSUITS is the second adventure in the CONCORDIA WELLS MYSTERIES, featuring 1890s professor-turned-amateur-sleuth Concordia Wells.
Click on one of the links below to start reading:
Amazon (Kindle and paperback)
Unseemly Pursuits, now in audiobook form
Produced and Narrated by Becket Royce
Listen to the sample:
Buy the audiobook!
Unseemly Ambition
Book 3 of the Concordia Wells Mysteries
A murder…a missing boy…a secret society’s bold and deadly plot…
It is 1898, and Professor Concordia Wells has come to expect the hectic routine of classes, clubs, teas, and the inevitable student pranks at the women’s college. If only she could avoid the cantankerous dean, Randolph Maynard, who has learned about her past experiences as a “lady sleuth.” To Concordia’s dismay, he scrutinizes her every move for evidence of unseemly conduct.
The dean will certainly scowl over the lady professor’s behavior when a disastrous turn of events affects those she loves. First, a mysterious woman claims that Concordia’s young friend, the eleven-year-old Eli, is her long-lost child. Soon after, they find the woman murdered and the boy gone.
Lieutenant Capshaw is given the case, only to be abruptly replaced by a junior associate. An innocuous reassignment, or something more?
Concordia calls upon a former ally, Penelope Hamilton, for help. As they search for the child and untangle the mystery of his mother’s death, Concordia realizes that not even her own colleagues are above suspicion. Not knowing whom at the school to trust as she attempts to side-step Dean Maynard’s continual scrutiny, she must tread carefully. Far more is at risk than the loved ones she seeks to protect, and there is no turning back.
UNSEEMLY AMBITION is the third adventure in the CONCORDIA WELLS MYSTERIES, featuring 1890s professor-turned-amateur-sleuth Concordia Wells.
Click on one of the links below to start reading:
Amazon (Kindle and paperback)
Unseemly Ambition, now in audiobook form
Produced and Narrated by Becket Royce
Listen to the sample:
Buy the audiobook!
Unseemly Haste
Book 4 of the Concordia Wells Mysteries
Murder aboard the Overland Limited…
It is the summer of 1898. Professor Concordia Wells is eager to accompany her friend, Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton, on a cross-country train trip to San Francisco. Breathless vistas and exciting locales will be a welcome change from a fiancé impatient to set a wedding date and the threat of revenge from the remaining Inner Circle members back in Hartford.
But Concordia should know there is no such thing as a free ride. When the Pinkerton Agency switches assignments at the last minute, she and Miss Hamilton have their work cut out for them. Fellow passengers prove to be both help and hindrance: a lady reporter in hiding, a con man…and a corpse or two. Then there is the handsome gentleman with the dark hair, green eyes, and a secret agenda of his own. Good thing Concordia is an engaged lady. Or is it?
UNSEEMLY HASTE is the fourth adventure in the CONCORDIA WELLS MYSTERIES, featuring 1890s professor-turned-amateur-sleuth Concordia Wells.
Click on one of the links below to start reading:
Amazon (Kindle and paperback)
Unseemly Haste, now in audiobook form
Produced and Narrated by Becket Royce
Listen to the sample:
Buy the audiobook!
Beloved and Unseemly
book 5 of the Concordia Wells Mysteries
A stolen blueprint, a dead body, and wedding bells….
Change is in the air at Hartford Women’s College in the fall of 1898. Renowned inventor Peter Sanbourne—working on Project Blue Arrow for the Navy—heads the school’s new engineering program, and literature professor Concordia Wells prepares to leave to marry David Bradley.
The new routine soon goes awry when a bludgeoned body—clutching a torn scrap of the only blueprint for Blue Arrow—is discovered on the property Concordia and David were planning to call home.
To unravel the mystery that stands between them and their new life together, Concordia must navigate deadly pranks, dark secrets, and long-simmering grudges that threaten to tear apart her beloved school and leave behind an unseemly trail of bodies.
BELOVED AND UNSEEMLY is the fifth adventure in the CONCORDIA WELLS MYSTERIES, featuring 1890s professor-turned-amateur-sleuth Concordia Wells.
Click on one of the links below to start reading:
Amazon (Kindle and paperback)
Unseemly Honeymoon
book 6 of the Concordia Wells Mysteries
When a killer crashes the honeymoon, three’s a crowd…
It’s the summer of 1899, and Professor Concordia Wells—now Mrs. David Bradley—eagerly anticipates their honeymoon in the Hamptons. She has one errand along the way, to visit a former student seeking advice. About a love interest, no doubt.
If only it were that benign. The young lady, now employed as a switchboard operator, inadvertently eavesdropped on a murder plot involving the high finance world of the Stock Exchange Luncheon Club. How to notify the police without losing her position? Before Concordia can think of something, the girl is murdered.
Without proof, the police give little credence to second-hand conspiracy tales. David convinces Concordia to leave the matter to the authorities and go on with their honeymoon. Little do they know that trouble will follow them to their peaceful getaway, and entangle them in secrets and long-standing grudges until they are fighting for their very lives. “’Til death do us part” may happen sooner than the couple ever imagined.
UNSEEMLY HONEYMOON is the sixth adventure in the CONCORDIA WELLS MYSTERIES, featuring 1890s professor-turned-amateur-sleuth Concordia Wells Bradley.
Click on one of the links below to start reading:
Amazon (Kindle and paperback)
Unseemly Fate
book 7 of the Concordia Wells Mysteries
Beware of rich men bearing gifts…
It’s the fall of 1899 and the new Mrs. David Bradley—formerly Professor Concordia Wells of Hartford Women’s College—is chafing against the hum-drum routine of domestic life.
The routine is disrupted soon enough when the long-hated but wealthy patriarch of her husband’s family, Isaiah Symond, returns to Hartford. His belated wedding gift is a rare catalogue by artist/poet William Blake, to be exhibited in the college’s antiquities gallery.
When Symond’s body is discovered in the gallery with his head bashed in and the catalogue gone, suspicion quickly turns from a hypothetical thief to the inheritors of Symond’s millions—Concordia’s own in-laws. She’s convinced of their innocence, but the alternatives are equally distressing. The gallery curator whom she’s known for years? The school’s beloved handyman?
Once again, unseemly fate propels Concordia into sleuthing, but she should know by now that unearthing bitter grudges and long-protected secrets to expose a murderer may land her in a fight for her life.
UNSEEMLY FATE is the seventh adventure in the CONCORDIA WELLS MYSTERIES, featuring 1890s professor-turned-amateur-sleuth Concordia Wells Bradley.
Praise for the Concordia Wells Mysteries:
“A fun historical whodunit with a delightful background of the early days of women’s collegiate education.” ~Library Journal
“…finely wrought historical details that make the reader feel totally at home…truly a delight to read. I’ll definitely be awaiting more adventures of the intrepid Miss Wells.” ~Martha Powers, award-winning author of Conspiracy of Silence and Death Angel
“The exquisitely plotted mystery will keep you turning the pages well into the night, and the richness of the world will keep you thinking about the story long after you put it down.” ~Janice Hamrick, award-winning author of Death Makes the Cut
“A delightful story, beautifully written. I have become a K.B. Owen fan. She writes a more “brainy” book than the so-called “cosy” mysteries. Her characters are well-rounded, the younger ones mischievous and all maintain the Victorian speech throughout. Despite a few anxious moments to do with with dead bodies, it is a joy to read.” ~Mimi
“Owen’s characters have a sense of humor, and her writing displays the spark of fun that adds so much to a mystery. Concordia Wells, the sleuth, is a professor at a women’s college, creating a built-in set of delightful character opportunities that Owen’s writing capitalizes on to the fullest. …Owen’s mystery is well developed and nicely complex, with the action and humorous elements I expect to find in the best mystery stories.” ~Susan Spann, author of The Hiro Hattori Shinobi Mysteries
Chronicles of a Lady Detective
Chronicles of a Lady Detective is a planned collection of novelettes and novellas featuring Penelope Hamilton, a recurring character in the Concordia Wells mysteries. Readers have often told me they enjoy Miss Hamilton’s character and would like to see more of her, so I’m exploring the lady’s early detective cases. The first adventure, Never Sleep, was released in April 2015. The next story in the series, The Mystery at Schroon Lake Inn, was released in March 2017. Pen’s third assignment – her most hazardous yet! – The Case of the Runaway Girl, was released July 2018.
Never Sleep: A Chronicle of a Lady Detective
Never Sleep is set in 1885, more than a decade before Concordia meets Penelope Hamilton in Dangerous and Unseemly. Here Penelope recounts her first case as a Pinkerton in her own right, and the tale is full of the mysterious occurrences and unladylike action scenes one would expect from a daring protagonist such as Miss Hamilton.
An old flame…an assassin’s bullet…the event of the season…
November 1885. Although Penelope Hamilton Wynch doesn’t especially miss her estranged husband, she does yearn for the excitement of the old days, when they worked together on assignments from the Pinkerton Agency. So it is no surprise that, despite their irreconcilable differences, she finds herself agreeing to help him on a case once again. He needs her to infiltrate the household of H.A. Comstock, a wealthy industrial magnate who has been the victim of factory sabotage and an assassination attempt, just as the family is about to sponsor a cotillion for their debutante daughter. As Pen works the case while dodging her husband’s attempts at reconciliation, she encounters another old flame who is looking more and more like the prime suspect. Pen must resist her renewed feelings for the man, as she races against
time to stop the saboteur and would-be assassin before he tries again.
NEVER SLEEP is the first adventure in the CHRONICLES OF A LADY DETECTIVE series featuring 1880s Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton.
Start the series with the 99-cent ebook! Click one of the links below:
Also available in paperback.
The Mystery of Schroon Lake Inn (Chronicles of a Lady Detective, #2)
Missing jewels…a haunted inn…a long-held secret…
Penelope Hamilton Wynch, one of the few female operatives employed at the Pinkerton Agency in 1886, is sent to the Adirondacks to investigate the mysterious happenings at Schroon Lake Inn, newly renovated to cater to New York City’s upper crust on summer holiday. Rumors of ghosts are bad enough, but when expensive jewelry disappears, the owner’s livelihood is at stake. A woman’s touch is needed.
Pen’s boss, William Pinkerton, thinks he has given her the perfect cover. She is to play the part of an eccentric spirit medium, eager to experience the purported ghostly manifestations.
Unfortunately, her cover will not remain intact for long, and there are those watching who do not appreciate her disturbing the inn’s secrets.
THE MYSTERY OF SCHROON LAKE INN is the second adventure in the CHRONICLES OF A LADY DETECTIVE series featuring 1880s Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton.
Get the next installment in the series for only $2.99 for the ebook! Click one of the links below:
Also available in paperback.
The Case of the Runaway Girl (Chronicles of a Lady Detective, #3)
A labyrinth of 1880s politics, high society, and murder.
On a January night in 1887, trouble comes knocking at Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton’s door in the form of a sulky young runaway. The girl turns out to be the grandniece of an influential senator, who hires Pen to escort the girl and her friend from Chicago to his Washington, DC home.
What seems a simple assignment takes an alarming turn when a hired thug shadows them on the train, and Pen stays on the case in Washington for the girls’ safety. But in the days that follow, the senator’s home is broken into, his driver goes missing, and Pen is pursued along dark city streets and nearly captured. Obviously, Miss Hamilton is thwarting someone’s plans, and such an encumbrance must be removed.
In a search for answers to keep herself and her young charges safe, Pen must tread carefully within the confines of back-room politics and business tycoons with a lot to lose, while resisting the attentions of an attractive but not-quite-reformed jewel thief who knows far too much about her.
She’ll need more than her lockpicks and derringer this time, if she is to save them all.
THE CASE OF THE RUNAWAY GIRL is the third adventure in the CHRONICLES OF A LADY DETECTIVE series featuring 1880s Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton.
Get the next installment in the series for only $2.99 for the ebook! Click one of the links below:
Also available in paperback.
The Secret of the Forty Steps (Chronicles of a Lady Detective #4)
Money, love, and murder in 1880s Newport high society…
Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton is summoned to fashionable Newport to investigate the two-year-old death of a wealthy matron. Did she fall from the Cliff Walk’s Forty Steps in the middle of the night, as was presumed, or was she pushed by her much-younger husband?
The case is personal this time, since Pen’s client is her own mother—breaking her near-decade of silence—and the man under scrutiny is to marry Pen’s cousin in a week’s time.
The lady detective discreetly enlists the help of a local, but the inquiry quickly unravels when he turns up dead. To make things worse, Pen’s identity as a Pinkerton is uncovered by Newport’s most prominent summer resident, whose complaint to her boss brings Pen’s estranged husband and fellow Pinkerton, Frank Wynch, to Newport.
With her cousin’s wedding day nearly here and no answers yet, Pen has no choice but to accept Frank’s help while dodging his romantic overtures. Nothing like a little danger to heighten an already-fraught relationship, as they work to expose a desperate adversary…who could prove deadly to them both.
THE SECRET OF THE FORTY STEPS is the fourth adventure in the CHRONICLES OF A LADY DETECTIVE series featuring 1880s Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton.
Also available in paperback
The Twelve Thieves of Christmas
(Chronicles of a Lady Detective #5)
A Christmas bounty of murderers and thieves…
Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton is happiest when she’s working on a case. This Christmas season of 1887 should be very merry indeed, as she has two.
One seems simple enough—a surveillance job for her estranged husband, Frank, a fellow Pinkerton. The other promises to be much more interesting. How did a society matron’s valuable necklace, lent a year before to a friend who was then murdered by a thief, turn up around the neck of a young debutante from Chicago’s high society?
All too soon, Pen’s investigations stir up trouble. She’ll need more than her trusty lockpicks and derringer this time, with a young mother and child in harm’s way, an assassin stalking Frank, and a killer claiming another victim.
Pen turns to allies old and new, including an impulsive young society girl, a snoopy housemaid (who’s surprisingly good at knots) and, most of all, a distractingly handsome and supposedly reformed jewel thief.
One thing is clear—she’s going to need a Christmas miracle to save them all.
Also available in paperback.
COMING SOON! OCTOBER 1ST, 2022
The Case of the Reluctant Witness
(Chronicles of a Lady Detective #6)
When all the world’s a stage, and a murderer waits in the wings…
Fleeing her mother’s attempt at matchmaking, Pinkerton detective Penelope Hamilton Wynch travels to a Connecticut hotel for a straightforward assignment: escort her sister-in-law Flora to New York, where she is to serve as a witness in a counterfeiting case. But Flora—an understudy player in a production riddled with strange accidents—is poised to assume the lead role and refuses to leave town.
Coaxing a reluctant witness is the least of Pen’s worries after a knife-wielding intruder breaks into Flora’s suite in the dead of night. Pen thwarts the attack—at the cost of her second-best shirtwaist, no less—but the man escapes. Are the counterfeiters trying to silence Flora? The lady in question remains stubbornly uncooperative.
With more questions than answers, and the growing suspicion that someone in the hotel—possibly in the acting company—is working against them, Pen turns to her trusty lockpicks and derringer, along with her good friend Cassie, in a search for answers.
But probing secrets comes with a price…and the acting life can be just as hazardous as detecting.
Available for pre-order:
Amazon (ebook and paperback)
Praise for Chronicles of a Lady Detective:
“I’m a big fan of historical mysteries that feature lady detectives, and Penelope Hamilton was one of my favorite secondary characters from K.B. Owen’s Concordia Wells series. Penelope has a strong opinion of the world around her, and this book gave enough hints of an interesting past and a future full of problems that I’ll be waiting for the next novellas in the series.” ~Marcy Kennedy, editor and suspense fiction author
“I really enjoyed this book (Never Sleep). It packed a lot into a short novelette. I loved the main character – and will have to read the other books in the series. Here I go again – getting hooked on a series of books/novelettes. What fun!!!! A Pinkterton lady detective. Love it.” ~nhrbookcrazy
“Loved this series! Waiting for more! Plucky female detective in a period of history I love, what’s not to like? Penelope Hamilton is resourceful, intelligent, diligent and determined in pursuit of the miscreants in each of these 3 books. …All together an delighfully enjoyable read! Thanks!” ~Catherine
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