The Missing Wife: A 19th century Parisian mystery

by Donna Gowland

A young aspiring writer finds romance and mystery in Paris! For fans of Mary Shelley, Daphne du Maurier, Diane Setterfield and Laura Purcell.

A daring adventure or a foolhardy affair…?

1814, London

It isn’t easy being the daughter of the great Mary Wollstonecraft, harder still to navigate life without her. Sixteen-year-old Mary Godwin is desperate for excitement and trapped in a family she feels stifled in, under the watchful, disapproving glare of her stepmother, she is constantly battling for her father’s attention and approval.

So when the young Romantic poet, Percy Shelley, comes blazing into her life, she falls quickly and deeply in love with him. But Percy has plenty of demons. He is already married with a second child on the way, and he turns up to the Godwin family home with a bottle of laudanum, declaring he will end his life if he cannot be with Mary.

William Godwin forbids contact between them, but Mary’s heart aches for the man she believes to be her soulmate. And so she agrees to elope to Paris.

The excitement of the journey soon wears off and they arrive in the city weary, travel-sick and penniless, though luck finally seems to be on their side when they meet a man who offers them money to find his missing wife.

But with Mary becoming increasingly homesick and concerned for her future, will her love affair with Percy be all she had hoped for? Could the search for the missing wife set her on a new course of self-discovery?

Or will her first daring adventure prove to be her downfall…?

THE MISSING WIFE is the first book in the Mary Shelley Investigation thrilling Gothic murder mysteries with a tenacious literary heroine working as a female sleuth.

THE MARY SHELLEY INVESTIGATIONS
Book The Missing Wife
Book The Lost Girls
Book Death at the Altar

237 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 23, 2025

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Missing Wife is such an enjoyable and engaging book that I made myself read slower just to make it last longer. What a clever concept to use the intriguing personalities and scandalous relationship of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley and Percy Shelley when they ran away to Paris as the basis for a mystery. It's a delicious read if you are an English literature fan, but if not, it's an appropriately twisty mystery of a missing Parisian wife. Clues as to what led to Mary Shelley's writing of Frankenstein are dropped like breadcrumbs as their search for the missing woman unfolds. The highbrow banter between Mary and Percy was hysterical since he was ever the poet and she a writer, although she was the more practical of the two.

Donna Gowland has quite a way with words, particularly her imagery. In describing a Paris arrondissement, "The buildings huddled together as if whispering conspiratorially to each other." Another favorite is, "France is a bit like Hamlet now, haunted by a ghost of its past." A perfect description of France in 1814, after the fall of Napoleon. I loved everything about this book, and I look forward to the release of the next book in the series.

[Steven Powell · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Missing Wife works on two levels. Firstly, it is a brilliant depiction of young and naive love. The callow Percy Shelley arrives at the Godwin family home threatening suicide unless the daughter Mary runs away with him. This leads to our second storyline - the mystery of the missing wife, an investigation Mary and Percy pick up in Paris for some extra cash, when their passion for each is already dimming. Donna Gowland weaves both of these storylines brilliantly. You can get a tangible sense of the literary life, complicated by young love, and the investigation goes from being a sidenote to a gripping mystery which places our young couple in mortal peril. But make no mistake, Mary is the dominant one in this pair, and as this is the first novel in a new series of 'Mary Shelley Investigations' then I cannot wait for her to return.

[Deborah Laing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This first investigative book has left me wanting more of the romantic adventures driven by a strong female heroine, Mary Shelly. The pace of the book and characters that take part in an epic adventure provided the lighter moments in the book. I found myself smiling at the historical references which contextualise and enrich the reading of it. The language used is periodically perfect adding to the rich landscape and the forms of travel our characters take enthralling. Poetic in itself the books obvious love of romantic poetry and mystery help to render this book a truly enjoyable read, I can’t wait for the next edition.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

1814 Shelley and Mary Godwin with her sister Jane run away from his marriage and her boredom, and travel to Paris, with no realistic plans how they are going to live without money. They are directed towards a M. Lamont who hires them to find his missing wife Claudine.
They all come across as particularly unlikeable.
An enjoyable mystery

[Jane Gallagher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am not usually a fan of this period of literature but the author has converted me. A fictional romp through the heady days of the Shelleys proved to be a real page turner. So glad there are more in this series.

[Maddy Templeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Mary Shelley's since I read Frankenstein for my English Literature A-level so I was very excited to read this book. I absolutely loved it, it brings Mary's character to life in such a fun and interesting way. It even made me like Percy Shelley as he became a real person with a sweet relationship with Napoleon the donkey! I love how Donna uses facts from Mary's history to weave a backdrop for this thrilling story. Mary is totally believable as a detective too with her enquiring mind. I couldn't put it down and I can't wait to read the second book.