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Series

World’s End Bureau Mysteries

The World’s End Bureau Mysteries follow private enquiry agents Lily Raynor and Felix Wilbraham in London in the early 1880s. Their investigations move from séances and missing schoolgirls to Russian refugees, rural murder, a Breton asylum and human remains uncovered behind Tower Hill.

The series uses Victorian detective work to explore spiritualism, class, girls’ education, migration, mental health institutions and the precarious lives of people who cannot rely on the police or established social authority. Lily’s controlled intelligence and Felix’s persistence anchor cases that range across London, the Fens, Kent and France while remaining closely tied to the social pressures of late Victorian Britain.

Reading order

Books in this series (5 books)

The Woman Who Spoke to Spirits cover

1. The Woman Who Spoke to Spirits

Alys Clare

First published 2019

4.3(2,539)

London, 1880. Accounts clerk Ernest Stibbins asks the World’s End Investigation Bureau for help after his wife Albertina, a spiritualist medium, says her spirit guides have warned that someone intends to kill her. Bureau owner Lily Raynor and her new employee Felix Wilbraham begin as sceptics,…

The Outcast Girls cover

2. The Outcast Girls

Alys Clare

First published 2020

4.2(1,101)

London, 1881. With work scarce at the World’s End Investigation Bureau, Lily Raynor accepts a schoolteacher’s request to investigate girls who have run away from Shardlowes, a boarding school in the Fens. Lily enters the school disguised as an assistant matron while Felix Wilbraham remains in…

The Man in the Shadows cover

3. The Man in the Shadows

Alys Clare

First published 2022

4.3(716)

London, August 1881. Reverend James Jellicote asks the World’s End Investigation Bureau to help Yelisaveta, an elderly Jewish refugee who escaped violence in Russia only to lose her eleven-year-old grandson Yakov after reaching London. Lily Raynor and Felix Wilbraham take up the search for the missing…

The Stranger in the Asylum cover

4. The Stranger in the Asylum

Alys Clare

First published 2024

4.4(526)

London, April 1882. Phyllida asks Lily Raynor and Felix Wilbraham to investigate what happened to her fiancé Wilberforce, who was confined to an asylum in Brittany after his father’s death. Reports from the institution are troubling, and the case becomes more urgent when another death occurs…

The Skeleton in the Rose Bed cover

5. The Skeleton in the Rose Bed

Alys Clare

First published 2025

4.2(373)

London, autumn 1882. Three elderly Fetterplace siblings visit the World’s End Investigation Bureau after human bones are uncovered in the rose bed of their secluded house behind Tower Hill. They believe they know who the dead person may be, yet their reluctance to let Lily Raynor…