John Pickett Mystery

When magistrate Patrick Colquhoun orders a habitual thief and ne'er-do-well transported to Botany Bay, he doesn't realize a fourteen-year-old boy has been left behind to follow in his father's footsteps-not until young John Pickett is hauled into Bow Street for stealing an apple from the produce market at Covent Garden. Feeling to some extent responsible for the boy, Mr. Colquhoun prevails upon Mr. Elias Granger, a prosperous coal merchant, to take him on as an apprentice. For the next five years, John Pickett hauls coal in exchange for room and board. The work is dirty and hard, but the drudgery is lightened by the occasional deliveries to Bow Street, where Mr. Colquhoun usually tosses Pickett a coin for his pains. An even more pleasant diversion exists in the form of Mr. Granger's pert daughter Sophy, with whom Pickett tumbles headlong into love. And then one day nineteen-year-old John Pickett stumbles by accident into a criminal investigation that will bring him once again to the attention of Bow Street for an entirely different reason, and will change the course of his life...

Low Dealings in High Society...Estranged from her aristocratic husband through her failure to produce an heir, Lady Fieldhurst resolves to repay his neglect by taking a lover. Fate takes a hand when she and her paramour enter her bedroom and find Lord Fieldhurst lying on the floor-with her nail scissors protruding through his neck.Idealistic young Bow Street Runner John Pickett has spent most of his brief career chasing petty pickpockets. Nothing in his experience has prepared him for low dealings in high society-or for the beautiful widow who is the chief suspect.The popular press sees the case as a classic lovers' triangle and expects a quick arrest, while back in Bow Street, the magistrate questions Pickett's handling of the case in the light of his unprofessional interest in Lady Fieldhurst. Under increasing pressure from without and within, Pickett must uncover the true murderer if he is to save an innocent woman from the gallows.

At your service, milady...Eager to escape London following the scandal of her husband's death, beautiful Lady Fieldhurst accepts an invitation to spend the summer in rural Yorkshire at the home of Sir Gerald and Lady Hollingshead. She soon discovers, however, that country life is not the panacea she imagined: tension reigns and tempers flare at Hollingshead Place, due in large part to Lady Hollingshead's ambitions for her daughter Emma, a lovely young lady destined for a brilliant marriage in spite of her love for a penniless curate.When a dinner party ends with the death of the vicar--a kindly old soul whose only sin appears to be the authorship of a dull local history--Lady Fieldhurst suspects foul play and sends for Bow Street Runner John Pickett, with one stipulation: since she is the guest of the Hollingsheads, Pickett must keep his connection to Bow Street a secret.Pickett obliges by presenting himself as Lady Fieldhurst's footman, complete with livery and powdered hair. But he soon has his white-gloved hands full sifting through old secrets, uncovering hidden passions, and dealing with a demanding housekeeper--not to mention avoiding the younger daughter of the house, a precocious fourteen-year-old with a schoolgirl tendre for the faux footman. Then there is the problem of Lady Fieldhurst herself, at once an able assistant and an all too pleasant distraction.

When Julia, Lady Fieldhurst returns from her sojourn in Scotland restless and out of sorts, her friend Emily, Lady Dunnington decides what Julia needs is a lover. Lady Dunnington plans a dinner party with carefully selected male guests from whom Julia may choose a paramour. Emily also invites a potential lover for herself: Sir Reginald Montague, a man whose urbane manner and dangerous good looks hide a host of unsavory secrets.Alas, Emily's little dinner is a disaster from the outset. Every gentleman at the table bears some unspoken grudge against Sir Reginald, and then dinner is interrupted by Emily's estranged husband. He and Emily have a heated discussion that ends with Lord Dunnington's vowing to put a stop to his wife's pursuit of Sir Reginald "no matter what it takes." But the coup de grâce comes at the end of the evening, when Sir Reginald is shot dead.Bow Street Runner John Pickett is summoned to Emily's house, where he is taken aback to find Julia. For in addition to investigating the case, he is faced with the awkward task of informing her that their masquerade as a married couple in Scotland has resulted in their being legally wed. Beset by distractions-not least the humiliating annulment process and the flattering attentions of Lady Dunnington's pretty young housemaid-Pickett must find the killer of a man whom everyone has reason to want dead.

All things come to those who wait...Bow Street Runner John Pickett and Julia, Lady Fieldhurst seem to have arrived at an impasse as they wait for the annulment of their accidental marriage to come before the ecclesiastical court.In the meantime, Pickett is summoned to investigate the theft of almost two hundred pounds from a linen-draper's shop--but finds no sign that either the shop or the safe where the money was kept has been forced upon.Given the lack of evidence, he can only assume that the money was taken by someone inside. With a host of suspects and a hostile hound named Brutus impeding his progress, Pickett must resort to the tricks of his former trade in order to catch a thief.

When a rash of jewel thefts strikes London, magistrate Patrick Colquhoun deploys his Bow Street Runners to put a stop to the crimes. The Russian Princess Olga Fyodorovna is to attend a production of Handel's Esther at Drury Lane Theatre, where she will wear a magnificent diamond necklace. The entire Bow Street force will be stationed at various locations around the theatre-including John Pickett, who will occupy a box directly across from the princess.In order to preserve his incognito, Pickett must appear to be a private gentleman attending the theatre. Mr. Colquhoun recommends that he have a female companion-a lady, in fact, who might prevent him from making any glaring faux pas. But the only lady of Pickett's acquaintance is Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, to whom he accidentally contracted a Scottish irregular marriage several months earlier, and with whom he is seeking an annulment against his own inclinations-and for whom he recklessly declared his love, secure in the belief he would never see her again.The inevitable awkwardness of their reunion is forgotten when the theatre catches fire. In the confusion, the Russian diamonds are stolen, and Pickett is struck in the head and rendered unconscious. Suddenly it is up to Julia not only to nurse him back to health, but to discover his attacker and bring the culprit-and the jewel thief-to justice.

John Pickett's greatest challenge yet...meeting his in-laws! After a modest wedding ceremony, Bow Street Runner John Pickett and his bride Julia, the former Lady Fieldhurst, set out for a wedding trip to Somersetshire, wher Pickett must face his gratest challenge yet: meeting his in-laws. Sir Thaddeus and Lady Runyon are shocked at their daughter's hasty remarriage-and appalled by her choice of a second husband. Pickett, for his part, is surprised to learn that Julia once had an elder sister: Claudia, Lady Buckleigh, disappeared thirteen years earlier, leaving no trace beyond a blood-soaked shawl. When Sir Thaddeus confides that his wife is convinced Claudia's spirit now haunts her childhood home, Pickett sees a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of Julia's family. He agrees to investigate and, hopefully, lay the Runyon "ghost," whoever-or whatever-it is. Matters take a grisly turn when Sir Thaddeus's groom is discovered with his throat slit. The timing could hardly be worse, for the whole village is aflutter with the news that Lord Buckleigh has brought home a new bride, just when Major James Pennington, the vicar's son who was Claudia's childhood sweetheart, has returned on leave from war in the Peninsula. The major was apparently the last person to see Claudia alive, and Pickett is convinced he knows more about her disappearance than he's telling. Suddenly it seems the distant past is not so distant, after all. It may not even be past...

Returning to London after his honeymoon (For Deader or Worse), Bow Street Runner John Pickett soon discovers wedded bliss is not without its pitfalls, as he finds it galling to be financially dependent on Julia, his aristocratic bride. When he is summoned to the home of Lady Washbourn, Pickett finds he has something in common with the young countess: like himself, Lady Washbourn has married above her station, and now finds herself adrift in a world to which she does not truly belong.After a series of unsettling incidents--dismissed as accidents by Lord Washbourn and his mother, the dowager countess--Lady Washbourn fears her husband is trying to kill her. The couple will be hosting a masquerade ball, and the countess fears the anonymity of masks and costumes may afford Lord Washbourn an opportunity to make another, bolder attempt on her life. Tricked out in fancy dress for the occasion, Pickett feels more than a little foolish, but when one of the housemaids dies shortly after stealing a sip of Lady Washbourn's ratafia, he realizes her ladyship's fears were not unfounded.Then the coroner's jury returns a verdict of death by natural causes, and Lord Washbourn makes it clear that he considers the matter settled. Pickett stakes his professional reputation on proving the maid was murdered with a poison intended for her mistress. And with a reward of fifty pounds sterling riding on his successful resolution of the case, the marriage Pickett saves just might be his own.

Honeymoon from Hades...The eighth book in the series finds John Pickett bound for England's scenic Lake District, where an unsigned letter has summoned him for an unspecified reason. Pickett and his wife Julia, the former Lady Fieldhurst, take a room at the Hart and Hound as the letter instructs him. Once installed there, however, Pickett can do nothing but wait for the anonymous contact to identify himself. A midnight search of the inn's register seems to identify the innkeeper, Ned Hawkins, as his man, but before Pickett can discover the reason for his summons, Hawkins is pushed from a cliff--surviving the fall only long enough to call Pickett's attention to the letter in his pocket.With his contact dead and his only clue a letter containing nothing more than a rambling account of family news, Pickett knows he's on his own. But that isn't the worst of his problems: Julia saw the crime being committed, and although she can't identify the murderer, there is every indication that the killer knows he was seen--and intends to eliminate any possible witnesses.Amidst a quirky cast of characters including a host of holiday-makers, a bucolic love triangle, an aspiring poet in the Romantic vein, and an old friend of his magistrate, Mr. Colquhoun, Pickett must discover the secret behind that urgent summons before a second, and far more personal, murder is committed.

Now you see her...Still haunted by memories of his last case, in which an innocent woman was accidentally killed, Bow Street Runner John Pickett welcomes the challenge of a new assignment in the West Country. Unfortunately, this time he'll have to leave his beloved wife, Julia, behind, as he'll be traveling in company with Harry Carson, a member of the Foot Patrol whose swaggering self-confidence is an uneasy fit with Pickett's reserve. Now you don't! After three days of trying without success to make contact with the man who sent for him, Pickett receives word from Bow Street that Julia has been abducted. Suddenly his current case takes on much more ominous implications. And if the man behind it all is the one Pickett fears it is, then Julia is in mortal danger...

Having resigned his position at Bow Street, John Pickett waits in vain for someone-anyone!-to engage his services as a private inquiry agent. As weeks go by with no responses to his newspaper advertisement, he has taken to spending his days wandering idly about London rather than admit his failure to his wife. One day, while loitering in the Covent Garden market, he wonders morosely if it might have been better had he not been born at all. Then he sees one of his former colleagues and, in an attempt to make a discreet exit, manages instead to knock himself unconscious. He awakens to discover that his Bow Street colleague doesn't seem to remember him, and after staggering back home to Curzon Street, he finds someone else living in the house where he lived with Julia. But still greater surprises are in store for Pickett as he attempts to navigate his way through a world in which he never existed…

When one of his colleagues witnesses a robbery in which one of the participants, a child, bears a striking resemblance to a certain Bow Street Runner, John Pickett realizes he has a young half-brother who has been "apprenticed" to a criminal gang. The brutal murder of the pursuing constable makes the crime far more serious than a simple robbery would be-and ten-year-old Kit is linked to the crime by the toy soldier he dropped while fleeing the scene. In spite of his tender years, he will certainly hang unless Pickett can extricate him before fellow Bow Street Runner Maxwell solves the case. For the first time in his career, Pickett is obliged to work against one of his fellows, dogging Maxwell's steps and trying to anticipate his next move in order to get to the boy first. Pickett's investigation will take him back to the rookeries of London, where his own childhood was spent. But can he return to his old haunts without being pulled back into his old way of life?

Having resigned his position at Bow Street in disgrace (at least in his own mind) and failed in his attempt to establish himself as a private agent, John Pickett toils away at a tedious job as a clerk in the City. When he is approached by a man wishing to hire him to extract a young lady being held against her will at an asylum for opium-eaters, Pickett jumps at the chance to prove himself, and has a very reluctant Julia commit him to the institution as a patient. But nothing at the Larches is exactly as it seems, and while getting in may be easy, getting out may be another matter entirely…

With a beautiful and clever wife, a growing investigative business, and a baby due any day, former Bow Street Runner John Pickett finally has a respectable life far removed from his beginnings as a juvenile pickpocket in the rookeries of St. Giles. Then his father returns from transportation to Botany Bay, and Pickett's hard-won respectability threatens to collapse like a house of cards. When a person from his mother's shadowy past surfaces, followed less than twenty-four hours later by the discovery of "Gentleman" Jack Pickett's body in a back alley in Limehouse, Pickett finds himself juggling the dual obligations of settling his father's tangled affairs, and discovering the identity of the man-or woman-who decided to settle Gentleman Jack permanently.