Fascinating read with a telegraphed ending.

Laurel Nicolson is hiding from her family. She has a secret; she is running away to London to become an actress and in love with the most exciting boy Laurel has ever met. Doubting that her happy, but boring parents would understand, she feels as if lit from the inside, a comet streaking across the sky. She soon learns that life is not as simple and boring as it seems when her mother, Dorothy, stabs a man with the heirloom cake knife Mum has come to fetch.

Herbert George Wells intends to meet the American writer who wrote a sequel to War of the Worlds and Wells intends to give Serviss a large piece of his mind. Wells is livid at not only how it was done but also that Serviss turned his book into a showcase for American excess.

Everyone’s favorite detective is back! This is the fourth novel in a series featuring actor/detective Tennyson Hardwick (a character that is loosely based on movie actor, Blair Underwood). Not only extremely handsome, but also highly intelligent and a whole lot of fun, there are many fans who would love to see this particular detective up on the big screen.

Elsa Emerson is the youngest of three daughters born to a life at the Cherry County Playhouse run by her parents, her father the director and her mother support staff. When Elsa takes the stage in her first role as a flower girl at a wedding, she is hooked. She wants to be an actress, to be part of the magical world.

Lilly Hawkins dreads the day that her boyfriend pops the question. She found the ring, so she knows the day is not far away, especially since it is Christmas Eve. The newsroom where she works is running on a skeleton shift and more shooters (camera journalists) have lost their jobs as more on air personalities shoot and cut their own videos. One thing she does not need is death in the family, and that is what she gets.