Though This Be Madness — 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 novice detective and as a woman in a man's world. Ordered to once 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 Fortenot family is convinced her grandson's former widow has been unjustly committed to an insane asylum by her second husband. She believes the man is attempting to wrest the family fortune away from his new wife. Soon, behind the beautiful façade of the Fortenot mansion, the detectives uncover secrets, betrayal, voodoo curses -- and murder. Even as Lilly and Cade chafe against their roles, they must work together to expose the true villain of this tragedy before the hapless widow faces her final curtain call.