Carlos Bayne
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Carlos Bayne
A Steampunk Whodunnit
by
Darien, Georgia, 1881. When Madame Crowe is found murdered in her own boarding house, Pinkerton detectives Junius Price and Archibald McNittle must navigate a town that wants nothing to do with "Yankee" investigators. As they dig into the victim's past, they uncover a woman who survived stowing away from Germany, escaped a brothel, built her own empire, and made dangerous enemies along the way. With multiple suspects, conflicting motives, and a steampunk lie detector their only advantage, the detectives race to find a killer in a case where everyone had reason to want Crowe dead. A historical mystery where the truth proves more elusive than justice.
The port town of Darien, Georgia, 1881.
When a caller reports murder at the Crowe's Nest Boarding House, Pinkerton detectives Junius Price and Archibald McNittle expect another routine case in a town that resents their Northern presence. What they find is a mystery as tangled as the victim's past.
Madame Crowe was no ordinary boarding house proprietor. A German stowaway who survived the crossing, she was sold into a brothel, developed a crippling opium addiction, and clawed her way free to build her own empire. Her Crowe's Nest made enemies of the town's established madam, attracted the obsessive attention of shipping magnate Clayton "Big Clay" Baron, and drew the ire of his vengeful wife. She borrowed money she couldn't repay from a ruthless loan shark, and her opium supplier had his own reasons to silence her.
As Price and McNittle employ period detective work and their experimental McNittle-Price Lie Detection Device, they discover that Crowe's murder was not the work of a single hand. Multiple perpetrators, each with their own motives, converged on that bloody room. The investigation reveals the tragic architecture of a woman's desperate rise and brutal fall, but the full truth remains just out of reach.
The Murder of Crowe is a steampunk-infused historical mystery that asks whether justice is possible when everyone is guilty of something.
Title is vital | Keep the pen moving | Write what you know
Carlos Bayne is a storyteller drawn to the shadowed intersections of history, mystery, and invention. His work blends historical fiction, noir-inspired detective narratives, and speculative steampunk elements, creating worlds where logic and machinery collide with human ambition and moral ambiguity. He is the author of the Detectives For Hire series, beginning with The Murder of Crowe and continuing with The Clockwork Coroner. These stories follow former Pinkerton agents navigating post-Civil War America as they unravel conspiracies that blur the line between science and the supernatural. At the center of his latest work is a world where early forensic science, political corruption, and experimental technology converge in increasingly dangerous ways. When not writing, Carlos is often developing interconnected story worlds, refining character arcs, and building narrative frameworks that span novels, visuals, and interactive storytelling. He lives in the Pacific Northwest, where the atmosphere often mirrors the tone of his fiction—moody, layered, and quietly electric.
Two disgraced Pinkerton detectives. One poisoned judge. A conspiracy that reaches the highest offices of Philadelphia.
Junius Price and Archibald McNittle trade agency badges for independence, scraping by on divorce cases and missing dogs—until a widow's grief drags them into something far deadlier. Doctor Horatio Peabody's miracle Elixir of Vigor is killing the city's elite. The evidence points to mechanical coroners, forged death certificates, and men who bury truth like bodies.
With their office ransacked, the police hunting them, and a gala full of suspects between them and justice, Junius and Archie have only each other—and a stubborn refusal to quit.
Some partnerships are forged in fire. Others, in the fog-shrouded docks of a city that wants them dead.