The Tiger in the Well by Philip Pullman

It is 1881 in Victorian London and Sally Lockhart is faced with solving a mystery that could cost her the one thing most dear to her: her own child.  On her doorstep is a man with a piece of paper telling her that a man she has never met is petitioning her for divorce for her cruelty and immoral behaviour.  With her business partners Jim Taylor and Webster Garland away on a photography expedition she seems vulnerable and the net closes fast around her, a forged marriage certificate, accusations of improper behaviour lethal to a woman and her business in the 1880s.  And behind all is the shadowy puppet master figure of the Tzaddik.

Great melodrama, Sally despite all the odds managing to hold her own in a world in which men have all the power and influence.  Not as warm as The Shadow in the North, but still good