Praise for The Sleeping Partner

At the outset of Robins’s entertaining third mystery … an upper-class lady using the pseudonym “Mrs. Brown” calls on Sarah Tolerance, a freelance “agent of inquiry” whom society deems a fallen woman because she eloped at 16 with her brother’s fencing tutor. Mrs. Brown wants Sarah’s help in locating her 16-year-old sister, Evadne, who has eloped, unwilling to remain in their father’s house under his “harsh rule.” Sarah, struck by the similarities between Evadne’s situation and her own at the same age, searches for the missing girl in London’s underworld, where she discovers connections to her own family and to a wider war-profiteering scandal. Colorful characters like Sarah’s brothel-keeping Aunt Thea, cameos by such real-life personages as Mary Wollstonecraft, and the slow-burning romance between the quick-witted Sarah and close friend Sir Walter Mandiff all add to the fun.

—Publishers Weekly

Praise for Petty Treason

“Robins knows how to whip up an historical pastiche so that it neither violates the reality of the period nor strikes us as off-puttingly arcane. Robins is writing a series that is shaping up to be a crowd-pleaser in the best sense.”

—Salon

“Sarah may be a ‘Fallen Woman,’ but she’s also clever, resourceful, and highly capable with a sword.  She is so well realized that we accept the conceit of a female sleuth–a liberated Elizabeth Bennet, as it were–who fences, wears men’s clothing, and lives behind her aunt’s brothel.  One hopes the delicate hint of romance with the Magistrate Sir Walter Mandif is realized in future novels in this most pleasing and agreeable series.”

—Publishers Weekly

Praise for Point of Honour

“Sarah is a fascinating heroine, and Robins surrounds her with equally intriguing secondary characters.  Politics, deception, danger, and a bit of romance all come together beautifully in this superb debut.”

—Booklist

“An action-packed, suspense-filled read, complete with a 19th century heroine reminiscent of the present day Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

—Romantic Times (4 stars)

Praise for The Stone War

A New York Times Notable Book for 1999

“Robins writes with rare conviction…Just when you begin to realize exactly what happened to New York, you also begin to understand that what you are reading is not a proper disaster story at all, but a love story–about love lost and found, and the price to be paid when people ignore the human disasters in their midst.”

—The New York Times Book Review

“An unusually and beautifully written tale.  Robins’s characterizations are clearly and finely drawn, and her portrait of a city struggling to survive is one that any city dweller–and especially anyone who knows and loves New York–will recognize and cherish.”

–Elizabeth A. Lynn

“When Madeleine Robins wakes the stone lions in front of the New York Public Library, it is the hand of a master at work.  The Stone War is American magic, superbly told.”

–Maureen F. McHugh