Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries

Cavalry captain Gabriel Lacey returns to Regency London from the Napoleonic wars, burned out, fighting melancholia, his career ended. His interest is piqued when he learns of a missing girl, possibly kidnapped by a prominent member of Parliament. Lacey's search for the girl leads to the discovery of murder, corruption, and dealings with a leader of the underworld. At the same time, he struggles with his own transition from a soldier's life to the civilian world, redefining his role with his former commanding officer, and making new friends--from the top of society to the street girls of Covent Garden.

London 1816Returning home through a sticky London night in July 1816, Captain Gabriel Lacey is surprised to spy a well-dressed, elegant woman stride to the middle of an unfinished bridge. Following her in curiosity, Lacey is on hand to rescue her from an attack by a footpad. Lacey takes her to his own rooms in a street off Covent Garden to rest.She is one Lydia Westin, wife of Colonel Roehampton Westin, who has recently been accused of murdering an English officer in Portugal during the Peninsular War. Before he could come to trial, however, Colonel Westin was found dead at the foot of the staircase in his own house.Lydia declares he was murdered and that she knows the culprits' identities. Intrigued, Lacey begins to investigate, and soon finds himself mired in scandals past and present, with a journalist dogging his footsteps, eager to print Lacey's latest adventure.Lacey also becomes embroiled with Lydia, a lady with many secrets, and with James Denis, who continues his quest to bring Lacey under his thumb.Lucius Grenville returns in this installment, the rich man-about-town who has become Lacey's sidekick. The story also contains the first appearance of Lady Breckenridge.Book 2 of the Captain Lacey Regency mysteries. This is a full-length novel.

On a cold January night in 1817, former cavalry officer Captain Gabriel Lacey is summoned to the banks of the Thames to identify the body of a young woman. When Lacey looks down at the pretty, dead young woman, cut down too soon, he vows to find her murderer.Lacey's search takes him to the Glass House, a sordid gaming hell that played a large part in the victim's past, as well as to gatherings of the haut ton and the chambers of respectable Middle Temple barristers. Lacey uncovers secrets from the highborn and the low, finds himself drawn deeper into the schemes of a crime lord, and explores his tentative new friendship with Lady Breckenridge.Book 3 of the Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries. This is a full-length novel.

Captain Lacey takes a post as a secretary at the Sudbury School in Berkshire, a school for sons of the wealthiest merchants and bankers in England. He discovers as soon as he arrives that he's been hired for more than his letter-writing skillsa series of disturbing pranks have kept the school in an uproar. The headmaster expects Lacey to discover the identity of the pranksterimmediately.Problems intensify when a groom of the school's stables turns up dead in a lock of the nearby canal. A Romany is arrested for the murder, and it is clear that the local magistrates are happy to see him condemned without much thought. Lacey is the only person who believes the Romany innocent, and he must hurry to prove it before the young man is hanged. As Lacey investigates what the magistrates do not want him to discover, the intrigue surrounding the murder becomes as murky as the waters of the canal itself, putting Lacey and Grenville into serious danger.

A Bow Street Runner summons Captain Gabriel Lacey to a Berkeley Square ballroom where a young dandy has been found stabbed to death during a society ball. The prime suspect: Lacey's former commander, Colonel Brandon.Instead of denying the charges, Colonel Brandon allows himself to be arrested, and claims, to Lacey's shock, that the lady he'd stayed protectively near at the ball is his mistress. Lacey realizes that he is the only person not convinced of Brandon's guiltall present, including Brandon's wife, believe Brandon committed the murder.Colonel Brandon's reticence to tell the truth proves to be Lacey's greatest obstacle in his race against time to prove Brandon's innocence. Lacey's hunt for evidence uncovers dark secrets that go back to the Peninsular Wars and involve the origins of Lacey's and Brandon's own private war.Book 5 in the Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries

1817: Captain Lacey stops to assist a young woman in the market at Covent Garden, and realizes to his astonishment that she is his daughter, Gabriella. Lacey then discovers that his estranged wife and her paramour, a French officer, have journeyed to London at the invitation of James Denis to dissolve her marriage to Captain Lacey.Meanwhile, a Bow Street Runner and a man from the Thames River Police have asked Lacey to help them look into the disappearances of "game girls" from Covent Garden. The magistrates aren't interested in their fate, but perhaps Lacey can learn a thing or two. Lacey agrees and recruits old friends to help.But when the goings-on in Covent Garden put his daughter in danger, Lacey's crusade turns personal. He will do anything, and call in any favor from anyone, in order to protect his own Gabriella.Book Six in the Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries.

September 1817:Captain Gabriel Lacey travels with Lady Breckenridge to his boyhood home in northern Norfolk only to discover mysterious happenings in and around the Lacey estate. A young woman, cousin of an old friend, has gone missing, strange objects appear in Lacey's ruined house, and the dark windmills on the marshes keep pulling Lacey to them.The underworld criminal, James Denis, uses Lacey's visit to Norfolk as an opportunity to have Lacey deliver a message to a local squire. A simple task--but one that lands Lacey squarely in international theft and murder. Lacey learns more about Denis's past, and finds himself joining forces with Denis to flush out a brutal killer and save the one person about whom Denis admits to caring.Book Seven of the Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries.

Winter 1818: As Captain Gabriel Lacey prepares for his upcoming wedding, his former neighbor, Marianne Simmons, asks for his help to find an actress friend who's gone missing. Lacey agrees to help look for the actress, little realizing that the search will pit him against men who think nothing of abduction, assault, or sending incendiary devices to the innocent.At the same time, Lacey's personal life is changing, and his time for investigation is frequently and frustratingly interrupted. He is also commanded by a new Bow Street Runner to assist in bringing down James Denis, a criminal with whom Lacey now has complicated ties. Lacey must help or else risk hanging alongside Denis.The search for the actress takes Lacey from elegant assembly rooms to the backstage of the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, where he finds darkness in all corners.Lacey's life and honor are constantly challenged as he tries to settle into his new life, until he realizes he can follow no code but his own.Book 8 in the Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries.

Captain Gabriel Lacey begins Spring 1818 preparing for a duel. But while he focuses on the affair of honor, darkness, greed, and death stalk the streets of London and bring tragedy to a family Lacey has grown close to.With the aid of Lucius Grenville, London's most famous dandy, and Brewster, a ruffian employed by an underworld criminal, Lacey explores the world of molly houses and the double lives some men of society lead. His investigation takes him from the elegant mansions of Grosvenor Square to the squalid lanes of Seven Dials, to taverns that practice a highly illegal trade, spelling ruin and possible hanging for those caught within.Lacey once again comes into the realm of James Denis, a crime lord, when what appears to be a simple crime of hatred becomes far more complex.

Captain Lacey is asked by Peter Thompson of the Thames River Police to help him investigate a cold casethe murder of a woman found near the docks Thompson patrols. The investigation was sidelined, considered unsolvable, but Thompson has long wished to find her killer.Lacey joins him in the hunt, entering a part of society that is closed to outsiders. Meanwhile, he must deal with his daughter's come-out and more developments in his new domestic life, including a blackmailer who's out to ruin Lacey any way he can.

Captain Gabriel Lacey accompanies famous dandy Lucius Grenville to Egypt, a land that Lacey has long anticipated visiting. Lacey travels there for more than a simple holiday, howeverJames Denis has tasked him with finding an "object" from ancient Alexandria and procuring it, whatever the cost.The task does not turn out to be so simple. Locating what Denis wants proves difficult, sending Lacey and Grenville exploring tombs along the Nile. Lacey must deal with treasure hunters, a shadow following him and his friends, murder, and missing his new family as he explores the exotic country he has so longed to see.

Captain Lacey is drawn into affairs of the highest in the land when his friend Grenville is asked by the Prince Regent to look into odd happenings in his lavish abode of Carlton House. Objects of value have gone missing, paintings and sculpture have been moved, and some of the staff have reported strange sounds and movements in the shadows. The Regent and his cronies suspect ghosts or other malign spirits.The Bow Street Runners have a more human suspect for these doings, and Captain Lacey is asked by a Runner to help him prepare a case against the man they've already arrested.But the suspect is under the protection of James Denis, a leader of crime, which brings Lacey head-to-head with him once more. Opposing Denis can be dangerous, and so can dividing the loyalties of the men who work for him.Meanwhile Lacey has his family to worry abouthis daughter, his wife, and new members who have joined. In addition, he's not convinced that either Denis or the Runners have the right idea in this matter. He must produce the correct answer before Denis loses his patience or one malevolent Runner in particular makes Lacey answer for the crimes.

London, 1819: When Brewster, my bodyguard, comes to me about a murder of a pugilistand what's more, says his wife has summoned meI must hasten to St. Giles to find a killer before Brewster is arrested for the crime. This is made difficult because my wife's late husband's odious cousin has materialized to try to wrest her son into his care. After all, seven-year-old Peter is a viscount, and his cousin wants to get closer to the title.But how close? If Peter's life is in danger, I must remain, but Brewster risks hanging for the death of his wife's brother-in-law. He's done too much for me to turn my back on him, but the devil if I'll let the Breckenridge cousin get his clutches on Peter.It will take all my perseverance, and a few wiles, to plough through these difficulties. In the meantime, I meet a Runner who teaches me about crime and punishment in this enlightened age, and Brewster's old trainer, who made him the excellent pugilistand thiefhe is today.

When Captain Gabriel Lacey finds himself standing over a dead body in Brighton Pavilion, bloody sword in hand and no memory of how he got there, he immediately fears he is a murderer.The dead man is Colonel Hamilton Isherwood, a man Lacey clashed with after the battle of Salamanca in Spain seven years before. As Lacey tries to piece together the events of the previous night, he discovers he'd promised to help a Quaker gentleman find his missing son, and that the Society of Friends might know far more about his strange night out than anyone else.With the help of Brewster, Grenville, and his wife, Lacey races to save himself from arrest, even it means bringing to light painful scandals from his own past.

James Denis gives Captain Lacey a task, to deliver a mysterious package to a man with an office near the Custom House on the bank of the Thames. Lacey, who has been drawn into danger delivering items for Denis before, opens the package to find a single chess piece, a white queen.The piece tells Lacey nothing, but he soon realizes it plays deeply into Denis's ongoing battle for control of London's underworld.Meanwhile Lacey encounters an old army friend just returned from Antigua, who is being accused of smuggling and possibly murder. Lacey decides to help the man, whom he considers honorable, to clear his name.But Lacey is drawn farther into the dark games of James Denis and his rival, until only his wits and memories from his past can save himself and his family from gravest danger.

When I agree to visit Grenville in his villa near Rome, I scarcely imagine that I immediately will become embroiled in mystery and mayhem. James Denis has requested that I purchase an antique from a collector, one Conte de Luca. Before I can approach this count, I am recruited by a Roman a man to help rescue his daughter from a cool aristocrat, and then asked to solve the murder of an Englishmanby a man who is already dead.These tasks do not keep me from traveling to the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum and exploring to my heart's content, but trouble follows me in the form of a man bent on killing mefor what reason I cannot fathom.All this is compounded by another murder back in Rome, and I am commanded by James Denis, as well as the aristocrat who stole my new Roman friend's daughter, to find out who committed the deed and the secret of the man's astonishing collection of rare and fine art.Probing these puzzles lead me to the past, present, and future troubles of the Italian peninsula, a beautiful but deadly place in the spring of 1820.

March 1820When James Denis is arrested for murder and lands himself in Newgate, it falls to me to prove his innocence. I have nowhere to start but in a dark street in Seven Dials and the name of the unknown man Denis is supposed to have killed.I soon find myself beleaguered by enemies from Denis's past, secret societies, and a host of people who want Denis to hang. In addition I receive word from a mysterious young woman I haven't heard from in years who now seeks my help.

This anthology brings together three short mysteries in the Captain Lacey series:In The Necklace Affair, Captain Lacey agrees to help a society matron discover what has become of her expensive diamond necklace and to clear her maid, who has been arrested for its theft. Lady Clifford declares that the rival for her husband's affections has stolen the necklace, but Lacey soon realizes that the problem is not so simple. He quickly becomes enmeshed in scandal and past secrets, and recruits Grenville and Lady Breckenridge to assist him. As he investigates, he finds himself competing with the underworld criminal, James Denis, for the necklace's retrieval.In The Gentleman's Walking Stick, Captain Lacey is asked to retrieve a walking stick, which embroils him in an affair of theft, deception, and betrayal.In The Disappearance of Miss Sarah Oswald, Lacey hunts for a missing young woman, learning more about a family's sordid secrets than he wanted to know.