A scent of lavender - Anne Willingale

Plymouth 1870. A murderer is on the loose. After the death of her father three years ago, Sarah Warrington had been sent to live with her aunt in sleepy Kingsand, Cornwall, but now, her mother wants her back. When Sarah arrives back in Plymouth she finds that her mother is now living with her two small brothers in a lodging house and that she no longer recognises the mother that she had always been afraid of. Although Sarah gets work, she is constantly at the drunken mercy of her mother and finds that her young brothers are running amock in the town, stealing food.

What has caused the downfall of her family and how can Sarah save them in a town where a murderer is on the loose killing women at random? Sarah falls in love several times needing something of her own, a secret from her mother, yet the man she truly loves is going to marry someone else.