Miss Morton Mysteries

Catherine Lloyd presents Book 2 in the Miss Morton Mysteries series.

Miss Caroline has doubts when she receives an urgent invitation from a London law firm to discuss her late father's estate. After all, the dishonored Earl of Morton died without a pound sterling to pass on to his two daughters. But while immersing herself in helping Mrs. Frogerton's capricious daughter navigate the high social season, Caroline meets with a cagey lawyer, Mr. Smith, who shares life-altering news, the earl composed a second will, leaving behind an undisclosed fortune. Mrs. Frogerton, however, is suspicious of the firm's true motives. Her instinct proves right when the two ladies find the office ransacked, staff in turmoil, and Mr. Smith missing. The full weight of the situation doesn't sink in until Mr. Smith dies following a brutal attack on the street, discovered with an empty envelope bearing Caroline's name in his pocket. With a connection forming between two deaths at the firm, Caroline can't imagine why anyone would kill twice over the contents of a will. Further complicating matters is the amorous Mr. DeBloom and the disappearance of Susan, her younger sister. As Caroline unwittingly becomes the center of both a criminal case and a sordid love triangle, she must tread with caution while seeking the truth... because someone is waiting to reduce her to nothing more than a signature on a dotted line.

Miss Caroline has doubts when she receives an urgent invitation from a London law firm to discuss her late father's estate. After all, the dishonored Earl of Morton died without a pound sterling. But while helping Mrs. Frogerton's daughter navigate the high social season, Caroline meets with a cagey lawyer, Mr. Smith, who shares life-altering news-the earl composed a second will, leaving behind an undisclosed fortune. Mrs. Frogerton, however, is unimpressed with the firm's conduct and suspicious of their motives. Her instinct proves right when the two ladies find the office ransacked, staff in turmoil, and Mr. Smith missing. The full weight of the situation doesn't sink in until Mr. Smith dies following a brutal attack on the street-discovered with an empty envelope bearing Caroline's name in his pocket. With a connection forming between two deaths, Caroline can't imagine why anyone would kill twice over the contents of a will. Further complicating matters is the amorous Mr. DeBloom-who claims his mother goaded the earl into making bad investments and promises to link Caroline to her inheritance-and the disappearance of Susan, her younger sister. As Caroline becomes the center of both a criminal case and a sordid love triangle, she must tread with caution . . . because someone is waiting to reduce her to nothing more than a signature on a dotted line.

The options for the penniless daughter of a deceased earl are few indeed in Regency England. So, following the suspicious death of her father, the Earl of Morton, and the discovery that she and her much younger sister have been left without income or home, Lady Caroline takes a post as a lady's companion to the wealthy widow Frogerton. Just as Caroline is getting accustomed to her new position, her aunt, Lady Eleanor Greenwood, invites her and her employer to a house party in the countryside to celebrate her youngest daughter's birthday. Mrs. Matilda (Matty) Frogerton sees this as an opportunity to introduce her own rather wild daughter, Dorothy, to the ton, and Caroline is eager to see her sister, who as a child lives with their aunt. But all is not well at the Greenwood estate. For one thing, Lady Caroline's former fiancé, Lord Francis Chatham, is a guest and refuses to speak to her. Far worse, after a series of troubling harassments of the staff, an elderly family member is found stabbed by a knitting needle. As Caroline and an unexpected ally - Mrs. Frogerton - attempt to solve the chilling crime, they discover the culprit may be leaving bizarre clues as to who will be next in the nursery. But they must make haste, for this heartless killer is engaged in anything but child's play...