A TREACHEROUS TRADE
Series: The Fiona Mahoney Mysteries #2
Author: Kerrigan Byrne
Genre: Historical Mystery
Release Date: March 8th, 2022
Fiona Mahoney chases Jack the Ripper from the shadows of Whitechapel into the most infamous brothels of Victorian London’s thriving sex trade, where secrets are exchanged as currency, and the bodies of murdered women leave a lethal trail to follow…
Standing in the ashes of her tragedy and laden with the secrets of the dead, Fiona seeks out the rough and relentless Inspector Grayson Croft to unburden her conscience. Before she can confess, Croft reveals the one thing that could dispel all thoughts of revelation.
Prostitutes are again being murdered, and a name is being whispered over their suggestively staged corpses. The name of the man who brutally slaughtered her childhood best friend. The name against which Fiona would sell her very soul for vengeance.
Jack the Ripper.
Only the promise of justice could entice Fiona to do something as reckless and daring as infiltrating the ranks of elite courtesans who accept the threat of violence as a nightly norm. She quickly learns that sin and scandal are powerfully compelling motives for murder, and that the secrets of the dead are sometimes worth keeping… if only to avoid becoming the next victim.
When the danger becomes too deadly to face alone, Fiona is forced to call upon old enemies and new friends including “the Hammer” a charismatic gangster, and “the Blade” an enigmatic assassin, and maybe even the Ripper, himself. Who better to help pursue a relentless evil than the devil you know?
5 ‘The Cards’ Stars
EX…TRAOR…DI…NARY!!! Tantalizingly enrapturing, cleverly orchestrated, and so heartbreakingly emotional and real, A Treacherous Trade surpassed all my wildest expectations!
For more than two years I’ve been dying for more of, not only Fiona, but Croft, The Hammer and The Blade, and well, all my prayers were answered because more – so much more! – we got, and still, after that surprisingly and maddening ‘ending’ I’m left BEGGING for the next, I NEED to know who was Fiona’s choice. My romantic heart can’t take the added suspense, and Ms. Byrne sure knows how to tease us!!!
The way the story’s mystery unveils, all its cards are laid, and how they intertwined with not only the Ripper storyline, but also Fiona’s personal and intimate tale, are done so exquisitely well that I was not only fully immersed into it, but felt like I was LIVING it along with Fiona. In this the superb audiobook also factored in, no doubt, due to it’s brilliant narration. Kerrigan Byrne set the premise so exquisitely in Business of Blood with its complex and intriguing characters, that in Treacherous Trade I felt the fluidity of the mysteries as one, and for that I warn that though possible to understand and enjoy the books individually, for the full Mahoney experience, one should read them together. Trust me, and heed my warning, you will be left wanting even more, just like I am. I DESPERATELY need more Fiona and all her ‘wolves’!
ARC kindly provided by the author for an honest review
Kerrigan has done many things to pay the bills, from law enforcement to belly dance instructor. Now she’s finally able to have the career she’d decided upon at thirteen when she announced to her very skeptical family that she was going to “grow up to be a romance novelist.” Whether she’s writing about Celtic Druids, Victorian bad boys, or brash Irish FBI Agents, Kerrigan uses her borderline-obsessive passion for history, her extensive Celtic ancestry, and her love of Shakespeare in almost every story.
She lives in a little Victorian coast town on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State with her wonderful husband. When she’s not writing you can find her sailing, beach combing, kayaking, visiting wineries, breweries, and restaurants with friends, and hiking…okay…wandering aimlessly clenching bear spray in the mountains.
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads