Negative Exposure by Jackson Marsh

December 1889.
Silas Hawkins, once a trickster from the slums, is now the public face of the Clearwater Foundation. As London society gathers to celebrate its success, and Prince Albert Victor considers becoming its new patron, life for Archer, Silas and the crew could not be better.

But everyone has a past, especially Silas, a man ripe for blackmail.

Photographs, demands, a dead photographer and a mystery amid the influenza pandemic of 1889, it falls to James, Silas and Fecker to find the blackmailer before Silas’ sordid past leads to public downfall.

But then Silas disappears, and all James has is a burnt letter, a missing railway timetable and a man with two names. He also has Fecker, and together, they must race to solve the riddle and find Silas before he kills either the blackmailer or himself.

Negative Exposure is the ninth Clearwater Mystery. The series blends fact with fiction, mystery with adventure, love with lust, and is best read in order.