Penny Richards

Though This Be Madness Lib/E Penny Richards

Shakespearean actress turned Pinkerton detective Lilly Long and her reluctant partner, Cade McShane, travel to New Orleans to save a young widow from a fate worse than death

1881, Chicago. Assigned to her second case as a Pinkerton, Lilly still needs to prove herself-both as a detective and as a woman in a man's world. Ordered to again work with Lilly, Cade needs to redeem himself for conduct unbecoming to a Pinkerton-a grief-driven drunken brawl. As if their forced partnership wasn't bad enough, the agents must pose as husband and wife servants in the troubled household of a wealthy New Orleans family. An acting challenge if ever there was one.

The elderly matriarch of the Fontenot family is convinced her grandson's former widow has been unjustly committed to an insane asylum by her new husband. She believes the man is attempting to steal the family fortune. Soon, in the beautiful Fontenot mansion, the detectives uncover secrets, betrayal, voodoo curses, and murder. Even as Lilly and Cade chafe against their roles, they must work together to find the villain before the hapless widow faces her final curtain call.