Immersive Historical
Fiction
Acclaimed Gilded Age Novels by Robert Brighton
Winter in the High Sierra
A Love Story
November 1899. New York society belle Louisa MacGregor, heartsick after a broken engagement, flees her old life aboard the last westbound train of the season, whose track cuts through the very heart of the steep and forbidding Sierra Nevada Mountains.
When an early blizzard traps her train in a remote mountain pass, Louisa is fast asleep in her luxurious palace car. The big train proves too heavy to make it over the snow-covered summit, and the engineer makes a fateful decision: to lighten the load, he crowds all his passengers into the first two cars and leaves the rest of his train behind to the mercy of the elements.
Asleep, Louisa does not hear the conductor’s urgent cries, and she and her palace car are left behind. When she awakens, she finds herself cold, alone, and deserted in the most rugged wilderness on the continent.
She is near despair when a solitary mountain man—whom she comes to know only as ‘Bandit’—locates her abandoned train. The handsome, mysterious Bandit—who seems to carry with him a deep sadness of his own—leads Louisa over the mountaintops and down to his tidy cabin, nestled in a secluded valley surrounded by the towering peaks of the High Sierra.
With no prospect of rescue until spring, Lou and Bandit must find a way to survive the deadliest winter in fifty years. Trapped in a wild mountain paradise that is by turns unspeakably beautiful and utterly terrifying, these two lost people must learn to trust each other—and, perhaps, find the true meaning of life, love, and redemption.
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“Beautifully rendered historical romance . . . A thoughtful, deeply human story that lingers long after the final page.” - San Francisco Book Review
“Brighton’s ability to build romantic tension while maintaining historical accuracy and spiritual authenticity creates moments of genuine connection, totally earned and deeply meaningful. Five Stars." - Readers’ Favorite


On All That Glitters
NOTES FROM ROBERT BRIGHTON
You Asked For It * Exclusive AMA
9/19/2025
When I asked in last week’s newsletter for your questions and did the same over on Instagram, you really delivered! Good on you! Being an author is often a deeply solitary gig. Most of my days are spent inside my own head, wrestling with fictional people, imaginary problems, and the occasional existential crisis about commas and em dashes.
READ MOREFestina Lente
9/12/2025
Video We live in a world that often praises speed—fast results, quick wins, and constant motion. But what if slowing down was actually the smarter path forward?
READ MOREWere Victorians Prudes? (and why it matters)
9/5/2025
People of the Victorian period (until 1901) and the Edwardian period (1901-1914) have acquired a reputation — if countless television programs and movies are any guide — as uptight, stuffy Puritans who call people’s legs ‘limbs’, faint dead away at the mere mention of sex, and drape linen loincloths around Michelangelo’s David. Were our ancestors really that uptight?
READ MOREWinter in the High Sierra
A Love Story
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OCTOBER 1, 2025
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PRE-ORDER SIGNED EDITION FROM THE AUTHOR'S COLLECTION
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“Brighton's ability to build romantic tension while maintaining historical accuracy and spiritual authenticity creates moments of genuine connection that feel totally earned and deeply meaningful.” - Readers’ Favorite
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“. . . Thoughtful, deeply human story that lingers long after the final page . . .”
- San Francisco Review of Books


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Winter in the High Sierra Audiobook
Hi there, and welcome to the audiobook announcement for Winter in the High Sierra!
Whether you're on a commute, out for a walk, or just relaxing at home, thanks for choosing to spend your time with this new and very special story.
What you're about to hear is more than just words on a page — it's a world brought to life through voice, pacing, and sound. So settle in, press play, and let the story unfold.
No screens, no distractions—just you and the journey ahead.
Winter in the High Sierra is principally narrated by me, with special guest actor Kirk B.R. Woller.
To learn more of the story behind the story, watch the video right here on my site that tells more of the genesis of the idea, the process of writing the story, and more.
You can find the audiobook at all of your favorite audiobook retailers and libraries. Let’s get started!

Rheinbach’s Remedies
A Short Story
In Rheinbach's Remedies, we travel back in time to the high-water mark of the patent medicine era, when millions could be made from a good cure-all.
Envious of the success of a local patent medicine kingpin, Dr. Franklin Rheinbach decides to concoct his own line of elixirs.
All goes well—very well—for Dr. Rheinbach . . . until he finds that success and fame have their price.
Acclaimed author Robert Brighton, author of The Avenging Angel Detective Agency™ Mysteries and other titles, is “an expert storyteller, who deftly blends the fascinations of the period setting with unpredictability and suspense . . . Brighton’s narration celebrates our common humanity.” — Booklife
“. . . The author is a talented storyteller, and it is hard to resist the very detailed and authentic world he creates.” — Kirkus Reviews
Available in e-book and audiobook formats.









The Buffalo Butcher
Jack the Ripper in the Electric City
Named BookLife Editor’s Pick
” . . . deftly blends the fascinations of the period setting with unpredictability, suspense, and horror . . . Brighton’s well-grounded, frank, and incisive prose shows the truth of sexual trafficking at the dawn of the twentieth century . . . at its core lies these women’s drives to save their dignity, and each other, to their last breath, in the name of love . . .”
Summer 1901, and the great Pan-American Exposition welcomes the world to Buffalo, New York—Queen of the Lakes. Eight million visitors throng the bustling boomtown—all of them looking for a good time.
As heat and swarming crowds choke the city, the bodies of prostitutes begin turning up, slashed and mutilated by a pitiless hand—their flesh carved with strange symbols.
Some say the killings are the work of the Devil himself. Others hint that the Whitechapel Murderer, Jack the Ripper, has crossed the Atlantic to resume his bloody career. Yet the city’s power brokers—afraid of any publicity that would harm the Exposition—turn a blind eye to the victims. They’re only whores, after all . . .
As the bloody summer wears on, only one thing is clear: it’ll be up to the working girls themselves to stop the carnage. And in The Buffalo Butcher, five of them will stand together to confront the killer . . . and to reclaim their humanity.
An important novel by Robert Brighton, acclaimed author of the Avenging Angel Detective Agency™ Mysteries.

The Unsealing Audiobook
You’ve loved The Unsealing (thank you!) and it’s available by popular demand as an audiobook.
If you haven’t been able to find enough quiet time to READ The Unsealing, as of today you can now LISTEN to it.
Several months ago—after quite a few requests for an audio format of the book—I went into the recording studio to read the whole novel, cover to cover, for your listening pleasure.
The AUDIOBOOK of The Unsealing is available to stream or download at all of the usual places: Apple Books, Audible, Audiobooks.com, Barnes & Noble, Libro.fm, Libby/Overdrive, Spotify, and many more not listed here (I don’t want to leave anyone out, but time and space are finite!).
Should you choose to favor me with your custom, I can promise you a good story competently read by its author.