Christine Trent Books In Order

Publication Order of Florence Nightingale Mystery Books

Publication Order of Heart of St. Mary’s County Books

Publication Order of Lady of Ashes Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Anthologies

Christine Trent is a bestselling historical mystery author that is best known as the author of the “Lady of Ashes” historical mystery series. The author’s works have been translated into Czech, Polish and Turkish. Trent usually writes her novels from her home where she has more than 4000 books that have been catalogued.
She got into books when she was just three and used to drive her mother nuts as she wanted to be read to all the time. Her mother finally decided it was all too much and let her into her library so that she could read for herself. Her love for reading turned out to be a good thing as she won a reading contest in the fourth grade following a string of wins in the third grade spelling bee competitions.
She soon discovered that she loved reading but also collecting books and she has been doing so ever since. Christine still has some of her old “Nancy Drew” novels and her copy of “The Borrowers,” which she was awarded for winning a reading contest in the fourth grade.
By the time she was twelve she began considering a career as an author.

While Christina Trent read a lot as a child it was not until much later in life that it occurred to her that she could make a living as an author. She was then at college and had gone to the bookstore where she had stacked several books on the floor each of which sold for a dollar. In the stack of books she saw a very beautiful cover that she thought was regal given the picture of a palace on its foreground.
The novel by Rosalind Laker was titled “To Dance With Kings.” It was a beautiful historical fiction work that combined romance with history that hooked her right from the first page. Very few books had ever made her cry and this was among them.
She so loved the book that she determined that she would have to find the author. The good thing was that her sister who worked as a librarian promised to track down the author and soon gave her the contacts of her agent.

Rosalind Laker then lived in the United Kingdom and Christina Trent wrote to her. She wrote back and the two would soon become fast friends that Trent visited her alongside her husband in the UK.
Given her love for the works of Laker, it was natural that she would gravitate towards writing historical romance. Her Inspiration had penned some contemporary novels but it was the historical romance ones that Trent loved the most. Just like many lovers of the genre, she found it an interesting and fun way to learn history outside a classroom setting.
Still, it was when she published ‘Lady of Ashes” that she began to think of herself as a historical fiction author. When she first published the novel it was supposed to be a standalone work. But her editor thought the concept of a Victorian era undertaker had legs and would make for an interesting series.
Since then she has come to write more than ten novels in the Lady of Ashes and Florence of Nightingale Mystery series among several single standing novels.

Christina Trent’s ‘Lady of Ashes” is set in London in 1861 where Violet Morgan is trying to make something of the family’s undertaking business that he has for the most part abandoned. She offers comfort for her clients, arranges funerals, and advises them on etiquette and funeral fashion.
What Violet does not know is that her husband has been working on a plot to sell arms to the Southern states of the US. He has been harboring a deep hatred for the United States ever since the War of 1812 in which his grandfather fought and died. This consuming hatred is so bad that he has abandoned his business to see America burnt to the ground.
In the meantime, Violet has been contracted to be in charge of the funeral for a friend of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria. It is a huge contract but when Graham goes missing, he leaves her in a precarious situation. She is also working on resolving the mystery of a series of deaths in the poorer parts of the capital and with each breakthrough, she finds herself in even greater danger.

In ‘Stolen Remains” by Christine Trent, Violet Harper has established herself as one of the best undertakers in London. She now takes a radical step of taking her business into the American wild west. But then her mother turns ill and she has to go back home to England where business is just as good as before.
She is contracted to arrange the funeral of a close friend of the queen who is the Viscount Raybourn named Anthony Fairmont who died in very bizarre circumstances. But things get very interesting when the body goes missing leaving her unable to do her work.
As the undertaker of a viscount all attention is on her as the Scotland Yard and the Fairmont family begin to search for the body. To maintain her good name she is forced to exhume her talents as a private investigator. Her sleuthing takes her from the tombs of ancient Egypt, the halls of Windsor castle and the servants quarters.
Just like an Egyptian mummy it is not long before the family secrets of the Fairmonts start to unravel. But the closer she gets to the truth the more her life is threatened by an unknown person.

Christine Trent’s “A Virtuous Death” opens to the aftermath of Prince Albert’s death with Queen Victoria still in mourning. She has now found solace in an enigmatic palace servant named John Brown who has been known to engage in the occult.
Violet Harper the undertaker gets an invitation to one of Mr. Brown’s readings. It is at the reading that John insinuates that a dark veil of death will soon shroud Buckingham Palace. Violet brushes off the man as a charlatan since she knows death so well.
But then some of his very improbable prophecies start coming true. Several young women who happen to be high born friends of the princess are dying under mysterious circumstances. These deaths just serve to make the queen more enthusiastic about the ominous talents of Mr. Brown.
It is a gripping tale of vengeance that will delight lovers of historical mysteries and romance alike.