Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread

INTRODUCING ROSE BURNHAM: DESIGNER, DRESSMAKER . . . DETECTIVE? 
 
'A joy of a read. A superbly researched story of post-WW1 female friendship chock-a-block with characters you’ll cheer on to the very last page, I read it cover to cover in a day' 
--AJ Pearce, Sunday Times bestselling author of Dear Mrs Bird 
 
* 
 
South-east London, 1925. 
 
Talented, ambitious designer-dressmaker Rose Burnham knows well both the strains of her profession and the secrets it can yield. Newly established in her own business, she and her sisters are privy to the hushed conversations that unspool behind the fitting room’s closed doors. 
 
So when a major client finds herself the victim of a deception, it is Rose she tells. Driven by the shortage of men following the Great War, Miss Holmes had engaged the services of a matrimonial agency, only to be cheated out of her inheritance by a fake suitor. 
 
Rose is determined to bring the swindler to justice. To begin with, playing the detective is a grand adventure, but as pressures mount and an old friend receives a troubling string of poison-pen letters, Rose discovers there is more to investigating – and these investigations – than she’d bargained for. 
 
Rose had the sense of a thread being pulled. One tug and everything could unravel . . . 
 
* 
 
Praise for Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread 
 
‘As well as being an exquisite mystery, Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread is an ode to the pioneering women who embraced new opportunities in the aftermath of The Great War. I loved it!’ 
--Jessica Bull, author of Miss Austen Investigates 
 
‘A hat box of delights, full of period detail and thoroughly enjoyable.’ 
--Claire Wilcox, author of Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes and Professor in Fashion Curation at the London College of Fashion 
 
'One of those books that transports you, making you forget about real life and full of delightful characters that spring to life. I actually felt like I was there in the story with them. For all fans of historical fiction!' Reader review 
 
'Lynn Knight writes beautifully about fabrics, design, fashion and a new generation of women supporting each other' Reader review

The House of Eliott meets Miss Marple in Lynn Knight’s superb fiction debut. As well as being an exquisite mystery, Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread is an ode to the pioneering women who embraced new opportunities in the aftermath of The Great War. I loved it!

Jessica Bull, author of Miss Austen Investigates

A hat box of delights, full of period detail and thoroughly enjoyable

Claire Wilcox, author of Patch Work: A Life Amongst Clothes, and Professor in Fashion Curation at the London College of Fashion

A seamless blend of elegance and drama, stitched together with exquisite skill . . . Phantom Thread meets Miss Marple

Orlando Murrin, author of KNIFE SKILLS FOR BEGINNERS

Lynn Knight was born in Derbyshire and lives in London. The women of her family passed on many stories along with beaded bags and buttoned gauntlets, and fostered her interest in the texture and narratives of women's lives. She is the author of the biography Clarice Cliff (2005), a memoir, Lemon Sherbet and Dolly Blue: The Story of an Accidental Family (2011), and The Button Box: The story of women in the 20th century, told through the clothes they wore (2016). Miss Burnham and the Loose Thread is her first novel.

Rose had the sense of a thread being pulled. One tug and everything could unravel. 
 
South-east London, 1925. 
 
Talented, ambitious designer-dressmaker Rose Burnham knows well both the strains of her profession and the secrets it can yield. Newly established in her own business, she and her sisters are privy to the hushed conversations that unspool behind the fitting room’s closed doors. 
 
So when a major client finds herself the victim of a deception, it is Rose she tells. Driven by the shortage of men following the Great War, Miss Holmes had engaged the services of a matrimonial agency, only to be cheated out of her inheritance by a fake suitor. 
 
Rose is determined to bring the swindler to justice. To begin with, playing the detective is a grand adventure, but as pressures mount and an old friend receives a troubling string of poison-pen letters, Rose discovers there is more to investigating – and these investigations – than she’d bargained for.

Lynn Knight

The Story of Women in the 20th Century Told Through the Clothes They Wore

A wooden box holds the buttons of three generations of women in Lynn Knight’s family – each one with its own tale to tell... 
 
Tracing the story of women at home and in work, from the jet buttons of Victorian mourning, to the short skirts of the 1960s, taking in suffragettes, bachelor girls, little dressmakers, Biba and the hankering for vintage, The Button Box lifts the lid on women’s lives and their clothes with elegance and wit.

Lynn Knight

The Button Box

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