Lord Petteril Mysteries

A missing family heirloom – and one of the family stole it. In the spring of 1812, Piers Withan is dragged from his beloved Oxford to be the new Viscount Petteril. Burdened by responsibilities he doesn't want and the remnants of a family who don't want him, he is saved from an irredeemable mistake by Ape, the small thief burgling his house. When the family heirloom known as the Petteril Necklace is found to be missing, Piers seeks out his burglar to get it back. However, their search leads them to Piers's own family – entitled, resentful and largely indebted. Only, which one of them is the thief? As he uncovers the truth, Piers begins to find his feet and his old joy in life, not least in his burgeoning friendship with Ape, whose past is a mystery of its own.

A murdered stranger in his home wood… The discovery of a naked corpse upsets the new Viscount Petteril's return to his ancestral acres. The local magistrate, Robert Lindon, has no idea how to proceed with so heinous a crime. Neither has Petteril, but curiosity compels him to help – with the aid of his fearless new assistant April, struggling to find her feet in this rich new world, and yet invaluable to more than the investigation. Identifying the corpse is difficult enough. Suspecting that the culprit is one of the local gentry, some of whom were Petteril's boyhood friends, is harder still. Could it be the aristocratic fortune hunter betrothed to Lindon's daughter? Or, as everyone would prefer, Brandy Bill, the highwayman still hiding out in the nearby town?

An earl's son, shot in the home of his mistress… Lord Petteril, with his redoubtable assistant April, is called back to London to help prove the innocence of his friend, Percy Austen, who is suspected of murder.Percy was once the lover of the victim's mistress, and his pistol was found at the scene of the crime. However, there is an embarrassment of other suspects, all of whom seem to have a tangled relationship to each other as well as to the dead man. And more than one is connected to April's past. As Petteril and April investigate among the aristocracy of Mayfair and the villains of St. Giles, their relationship reaches an unexpected crisis of its own. Is their friendship strong enough to withstand honour as well as convention? Or will this mystery part them for good?

A defaced portrait and the death of an artist – but is anything quite what it seems? To the furious disapproval of his assistant, April, Lord Petteril insists on calling in on Lady Haggard's country house party – only to discover his hostess and her guests in uproar over a portrait of the late Sir Weston Haggard which has been deliberately damaged. While Petteril tries to trace the vandal among the well-born suspects – who include members of his own family, old friends and enemies, and even amorous widows – April encounters fresh problems and makes new friends. But when real violence erupts, their hunt for the truth turns suddenly much more urgent…

Incognito in Portugal… Lord Petteril's cousin, the newly commissioned Major Bertie Withan, has gone missing somewhere between landing in Lisbon and joining his regiment on the front line of the Peninsular War. Piers and April, disguised as a government clerk and his wife to deter undue interest from possible ransom-seekers, try to follow Bertie's last movements from British army headquarters to the fetid back streets of Lisbon. Inevitably they face hostility, danger and too many secrets, but are they already too late to save Bertie?

Time to confront reality – and a worrying mystery. Lord Petteril and his new viscountess return to England to face the consequences of their unequal marriage, only to discover that Petteril's valet, the enigmatic Stewart, has been arrested for theft. Naturally, Piers and April have to clear his name by finding the true thief among the Red Lion Inn's servants and guests, who include an eccentric baronet and his sister, a wounded soldier and an old friend from Stewart's past. But Stewart isn't helping himself by keeping secrets which they need to unravel in order to reach the truth. Events take a more terrifying turn when Piers is shot at, and April makes a momentous decision regarding the future of their marriage.

A merry Christmas for the Petterils? Piers wants to make their first Christmas together special, and so it proves to be - just not quite in the way he planned. His eccentric Great Aunt Prudence summons him to London with the news that she is dying and that one of her servants is stealing from her. Only one of these claims turns out to be true, though both require investigating. Inevitably, Lord and Lady Petteril's presence in Town does not remain a secret for long, and April faces the humiliating discourtesy of those who despise her. Worse, a figure from her past rears his ugly head and brings back memories she would rather keep buried. When he is murdered, the past has to be faced before the future – and Great Aunt Prudence's notorious Christmas pudding – can be enjoyed.