Bow Street Duchess Mystery

A murdered opera singer. A duke drenched in her blood. For Bow Street Officer Hugh Marsden, the brutal killing is a straightforward case. Ever since his exile from polite society, the chance to arrest a high and mighty peer of the realm has never presented itself. Hugh won't snub the opportunity now. But Audrey Sinclair, the Duchess of Fournier, is certain her husband is wrongly accused, and she's determined to prove it to the arrogant Bow Street officer, even if she must employ her most peculiar ability-or perhaps curse-to guide her investigation. After all, a duchess can do as she pleases. Exasperated with the meddling duchess, Hugh is convinced she is protecting her own secrets, and the duke's. But when Audrey's discoveries persuade him to believe the true killer is still at large, he has no choice but to join her in the hunt-if only to keep her from becoming the next victim.

After a murder scandal nearly sent her husband to the gallows, Audrey, the Duchess of Fournier, has retreated to the countryside to distance herself from gossip-and from the Bow Street officer who proved as irritating as he was intriguing. But when Audrey's friend Charlotte, the Countess of Bainbury, dies mysteriously on Fournier Downs parkland, she summons the only person she trusts to uncover the truth: Principal Officer Hugh Marsden. Ignoring the mounting friction between them, as well as Hugh's command for her to stay out of his investigation, Audrey uses her uncanny ability to read the memories of objects to discover a web of sordid local secrets. More than one unlucky lady has been caught within its deadly strands, and a single misstep in their hunt for a killer could make Audrey and Hugh the next targets.

Secrets and lies simmer to the surface in the third riveting Bow Street Duchess mystery. For years, the Duchess of Fournier has buried a shameful secret connected to her remarkable, if bizarre, ability. While Audrey's gift has helped her solve cases alongside the captivating Bow Street officer Hugh Marsden, she longs to forget her previous committal to an insane asylum. But now, a blackmailer with a taste for violence is threatening former patients of Shadewell Sanatorium, and it appears the ghosts of Audrey's past have finally found her. Since their last inquiry together, distance and distraction have helped Hugh restrain his forbidden attraction to the untouchable Audrey Sinclair. However, when a woman's body clothed in one of Audrey's gowns, and bearing her calling cards, is fished out of the Thames, staying away from the stubborn duchess proves impossible. Hugh and Audrey must join forces to unravel a puzzling revenge plot, but after the scrappy street boy Hugh has taken under his wing is attacked and left near death, they begin to realize just how steep the cost could be for crossing paths with a killer.

Principal Bow Street Officer Hugh Marsden is used to living in the shadow of disgrace. First, as the illegitimate son of the late Viscount Neatham, and second, as the man who permanently maimed his half-brother in a duel six years ago. Reviled by the posh ton, Hugh happily severed ties to polite society-until the enigmatic Duchess of Fournier, Audrey Sinclair entered his world and turned it upside down. Now, Hugh's half-sister Eloisa has done the same. Just days after returning to London and hiring him to find a missing person-someone Eloisa claims holds a destructive family secret-she is murdered on a ballroom floor. The prime suspect? Hugh Marsden. When Audrey learns the Bow Street officer she's come to cherish is on the run and being hunted for the crime, she vows to clear his name, no matter what it takes. Restricted to clandestine meetings, Audrey and Hugh's investigation to find Eloisa's true killer peels back years of Neatham family secrecy and a diabolical scheme to conceal the circumstances surrounding Hugh's birth. The killer will stop at nothing to prevent Audrey and Hugh from unearthing the rest of the wicked truth-even if it means sending them both to an early grave.

A summer house party in the countryside takes a deadly turn after the abduction of a viscountess. After the shocking events of the spring, Audrey Sinclair and Hugh Marsden are adjusting to their new lives when an apparent highway robbery ends in the violent abduction of Audrey's sister. As callous as Millie has been in the past, Audrey can't turn her back on family. She'll do whatever it takes to find her sister, even if it means working with the man she's been avoiding for months: former Bow Street officer Hugh Marsden. Unsettled with his new role in society, and being deemed one of London's most eligible bachelors, Hugh is happy to fall back on his Bow Street skills to track down Lady Redding-and to see Audrey again. But the viscountess's disappearance is only half of the puzzle. A long-lost ring worth a fortune could be the driving force behind the deadly events, and as Audrey and Hugh unravel the truth-along with the secrets and complications surrounding their future-a killer closes in on the house party... and selects a new victim.

The Bow Street Duchess Mystery series continues with the sixth Audrey Sinclair and Hugh Marsden investigation . . . When a fellow passenger is found dead on Audrey's packet ship from France, a mysterious note on the body points to her as the killer. Detained in Dover for an inquest that is being led by a prejudiced magistrate, she is joined by trusted friends and family-and the newly minted viscount, Hugh Marsden-to prove her innocence. But when it's discovered the murdered man was a private inquiry agent, hired to follow the duchess while she traveled the Continent, they enter a race to find out who hired him and why-and what secrets the true killer intends to expose before sending Audrey to an early grave.

The Bow Street Duchess Mystery series comes to a thrilling conclusion in the seventh and final book, Taken to the Grave. As Audrey Sinclair reaches the end of her mourning period, she and Hugh Marsden, the Viscount Neatham, are at long last looking toward their future together-and hoping for a respite from the dangerous criminal investigations they've found themselves entrenched in. However, when the niece of Bow Street's chief magistrate Sir Gabriel Poston goes missing, and Audrey and Hugh link her disappearance to a stirring public panic over suspicious deaths at the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, they agree to one final inquiry . . . The Bow Street Duchess Mystery series is perfect for fans of the Lady Sherlock mysteries, the Veronica Speedwell mysteries, and PBS Masterpiece's Miss Scarlet & the Duke.

For years, Lady Cassandra Sinclair has harbored a scandalous secret and a painful loss. Unwilling to trust a man again, Cassie throws herself into a confidential project-a private home for pregnant, unwed women. But after she is seen there by the arrogant lord she once fought feelings for, the walls around Cassie's secret life begin to crumble. Physician and fourth son of a marquess, Lord Grant Thornton is content with his reputation as a debauched widower. No respectable lady wants to marry a rogue, and Grant has no intention of marrying again. But his father's impatience for a male grandchild to carry on the family title spirals into a demand that Grant either remarry and aid in the effort-or be cut off. When Grant discovers Cassie operating the much-whispered-about Hope House in the poverty-stricken stews of Whitechapel, he's as impressed at her daring as he is furious. He also sees a wicked opportunity... Cassie is appalled when Grant threatens to expose her secret unless she agrees to a staged courtship. With any hope, the child his brother is expecting will be a boy, and Grant will be off the hook. But until then, Cassie intends to make him regret his scheming. Acting the part of besotted couple in public, the two bitter adversaries clash in private, until an inconvenient attraction becomes unruly, and unstoppable.