Love, lust, and mystery combine in a winning combination.
Partners in work, crime, and love have a falling out that can be fixed only by another wild adventure.
Lepidopterist Veronica Speedwell’s lover, Revelstoke Templeton-Vane, has left her over a disagreement concerning the husband she had thought dead. When Veronica and Viscount Tiberius Templeton-Vane, Stoker's brother, track the natural historian down in Bavaria, Tiberius has an announcement to make: "I am rather concerned I am about to be murdered." Several of his former friends have recently died, and the obituaries he’s received in the mail have been accompanied by a threat that he will be next along with a stark warning: "VENGEANCE FOR LORENZO." All the men were members of the Seven Sinners, a group of bons vivants Tiberius joined during his days at Cambridge. During that time, they paid a visit to Cherboys, the Templeton-Vane estate in Devon, whose sea cliffs contain prehistoric fossils. Lorenzo d’Ambrogio died falling from the cliff while trying to retrieve a fossil. Tiberius, who’s invited the surviving members of the group to a reunion to mark Lorenzo’s death, bribes Stoker to attend the house party with a chance to restore a sculptured Megalosaurus that their father commissioned years ago and they'd thought lost. The party's guests include Sir James MacIver, a wealthy Scot; his wife, Augusta; Italian Count Pietro Salviati; and Beatrice, his younger American wife. Also on hand are the Greshams, a local doctor and his sister, who were there when Lorenzo died. Once at Cherboys, Veronica stumbles on reporter J.J. Butterworth, her frenemy, who’s looking for a story while pretending to be a kitchen maid. When Beatrice dies suddenly at a dinner held in the Megalosaurus, at first it seems that her weak heart gave out, but in fact she was poisoned. Now the quarreling Veronica and Stoker must work again as a team to find the killer before he strikes again.
Love, lust, and mystery combine in a winning combination.Pub Date: March 7, 2023
ISBN: 9780593545928
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2023
The lavish food descriptions and appended recipes are the best parts of this anemic mystery.
Christmas is coming, but so is trouble for South Lick, Indiana.
Robbie Jordan, owner and chief cook at Pans ’N Pancakes, returns from solving a murder in California just in time for the holiday rush, which is complicated more than most Christmastimes by a number of surprises that disrupt her circle of friends. First, her assistant, Danna Beedle, gets a visit from Marcus Vandemere, a young biracial man claiming to be her half brother, an assertion that thrills Danna despite the doubts of some friends and relatives. Next comes a fire that nearly destroys the home of anesthesiologist Dr. William Geller, a racist whose wife, Tina, reportedly left him years ago. When a skeleton turns up in the attic, the not-so-esteemed doctor has some explaining to do. Robbie’s nemesis, Detective Octavia Slade, who recently married Robbie’s former boyfriend, is more willing than usual to accept help from Robbie, who has a knack for finding things out. The next to die is Tina’s twin, Toni, who knew Marcus from karate classes. Toni’s husband is the prime suspect, but Robbie’s convinced the fatalities are connected. With help from her boyfriend and her network of friends, she attempts to clear things up before the killer spoils her holiday by adding her to his list.
The lavish food descriptions and appended recipes are the best parts of this anemic mystery.Pub Date: Sept. 29, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-4967-2317-8
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2020
The pre–World War II ambiance provides an apt setting for some ingenious murders in a case worthy of the clever sleuth.
An aristocratic young mother proves a dab hand at solving murders in 1937.
Lady Georgiana O’Mara is a cousin to both the new King George VI and the Duke of Windsor, who abdicated to marry the rapacious Mrs. Simpson. She’s married to the Honorable Darcy O’Mara, heir to an Irish title, but they don’t have much money even though Darcy works for the government in a hush-hush position. Luckily, she’s the heir to her well-off godfather, who’s letting Georgie, Darcy, and their son, James, live in his home. Everything is going well until Georgie’s bossy sister-in-law, Fig, Duchess of Rannoch, sends a much-too-proper nanny to take care of James, and announces that she intends to visit herself to make sure things run as she insists they should. Thoroughly intimidated, Georgie unhappily puts up with her unwanted visitors. Darcy encourages Georgie to go to London to visit her friend Zou Zou, a Polish princess who might help her find a nanny more to her liking. When Georgie arrives at her friend’s house, Zou Zou is rushing off to a funeral for a young man who died in a tragic accident, but Georgie soon runs into another friend, Belinda, who’s just returned from Paris. Another young man has just died in an apparent accident, but there’s something that doesn’t sit well with Georgie about the deaths. The death of a third young man sets the alarm bells ringing, and a fourth death sends sirens blaring, urging Georgie to look for connections among the deceased. They were all Darcy’s age and all set to inherit estates. Why were they targeted for death?
The pre–World War II ambiance provides an apt setting for some ingenious murders in a case worthy of the clever sleuth.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2025
ISBN: 9780593641392
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Berkley
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2025
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