"Treasures & Trespasses"

Available in EPUB, MOBI, and PDF formats. Read on your Kindle, phone, tablet, computer and more

In Victorian London, Sam Winthrop operates a respectable antiquities shop while secretly arranging deals for cash-strapped aristocrats—helping them sell family heirlooms and replace them with convincing forgeries. His carefully constructed world is shaken when Lady Victoria Maisonfaite brings him jewelry to appraise—pieces he recognizes as forgeries he himself commissioned, leaving her unknowingly treasuring worthless copies of her grandmother's heirlooms. Before Sam can fully process this moral reckoning, his old Cambridge friend Dr. Tobias Archibald desperately seeks his help. Someone is planning to steal the Maharaja's Ruby, a priceless Indian gem on loan to the British Museum for their first Eastern Treasures exhibition. The theft would destroy Tobias's career and damage British-Indian relations. Rather than prevent the crime, Sam switches the real gem for a fake during transport, then smuggles the authentic ruby to the museum through alternative means, where it's secured in an impenetrable display case. The experience transforms Sam from someone who exploits cultural heritage into someone who protects it. The story explores themes of redemption, cultural heritage, friendship, and the choice between personal profit and moral principle in the backdrop of Victorian London's art world.