Lynn Messina

Twenty-six-year-old Beatrice Hyde-Clare is far too shy to investigate the suspicious death of a fellow guest in the Lake District. A spinster who lives on the sufferance of her relatives, she would certainly not presume to search the rooms of her host's son and his friend looking for evidence. Reared in the twin virtues of deference and docility, she would absolutely never think to question the imperious Duke of Kesgrave about anything, let alone how he chose to represent the incident to the local constable. And yet when she stumbles upon the bludgeoned corpse of poor Mr. Otley in the deserted library of the Skeffingtons' country house, that's exactly what she does.

A Regency Cozy

A Brazen Curiosity

Miss Emma Harlow hasn't earned the reputation as a hoyden for nothing, so when the Duke of Trent discovers her in his conservatory stealing one of his orchids, he's isn't surprised-charmed, delighted and puzzled, yes, but not surprised. It is Emma who is amazed. She has naturally concluded that the man reading in the conservatory must be the country cousin (who else in London would actually read?) and is quite vexed to discover that he is the Duke of Trent himself-imagine, stealing the duke's prize Rhyncholaelia digbyana under his very nose! But her vexation doesn't last long. For Emma is a practical young lady with a mission: to end her dear sister Lavinia's engagement to the villainous (and dreadfully dull!) Sir Waldo Windbourne, and she thinks that the famous libertine is just the man for the job. If he would only seduce her sister away from Sir Waldo.... Well, not seduce exactly, but flirt mercilessly and engage her interest. Perhaps then Lavinia would jilt the baron. The Duke of Trent is resistant, of course. Despite his reputation, he does not toy with the affections of innocents. And besides, it's not her sister he longs to seduce.

A Regency Romance

The Harlow Hoyden

As much as Beatrice Hyde-Clare relished the challenge of figuring out who murdered a fellow guest during a house party in the Lake District, she certainly does not consider herself an amateur investigator. So when a London dandy falls dead at her feet in the entryway of a London Daily Gazette, she feels no compulsion to investigate. It was a newspaper office, after all, and reporters are already on the case as are the authorities. She has her own problems to deal with anyway-such as extricating herself from a seemingly harmless little fib that has somehow grown in into a ridiculously large fiction. Truly, she has no interest at all. Except the dagger that killed the poor earl seemed disconcertingly familiar... And so Bea is off to the British Museum because she cannot rest until she confirms her suspicion, while trying to allay her family's concerns and comprehend the Duke of Kesgrave's compulsion. For the handsome lord has no reason to waste his time solving a mystery alongside a shy spinster. And yet he turns up everywhere she goes.

A Scandalous Deception

Having solved the two murders that somehow fell in her path, Beatrice Hyde-Clare is on the lookout for a third. Through a absurd quirk of stupid fate, the shy spinster has fallen in love with the thoroughly unattainable Duke of Kesgrave and is desperate for something, anything, to occupy her mind. A dead body would do nicely. Fortunately for her, a fellow guest from a Lake District house party appears on her doorstep with exactly that: the lover of his fiancée's mother expired after a wretchedly painful episode just that morning in an apparent poisoning. As unorthodox as it is, he would like Bea to investigate rather than calling the authorities. Bea begins her inquiry into Mr. Wilson's death at once and almost immediately finds herself in the company of Kesgrave, who is as determined as ever to assist her. 'Twas patently unfair, for the whole point of the investigation was to get away from the handsome lord. Now Bea is faced with the daunting challenge of exposing the villain without revealing her heart.

An Infamous Betrayal

Vig Morgan is not like her colleagues at the fiercely cool and trandy Fashionista magazine. She is clever, ambitious and fed up with being an overqualified, underpaid underling. She is surprised to find herself drawn into a plot to depose the evil editor-in-chief.

Fashionistas

A Nefarious Engagement

The former Beatrice Hyde-Clare is having a little trouble adjusting to her new situation. Now installed as the Duchess of Kesgrave in elegant splendor in Berkeley Square, she is confounded by the stately residence's seemingly endless array of rooms and every time one of the maids addresses her as "your grace," she flinches. And the butler! Oh, yes, that imposing servant holds her in utter contempt and has no qualms about sharing his opinion with the rest of the staff. It's all so wretched. But just as Bea begins to despair-a bright spot. A neighboring house has suffered a ghastly tragedy, and although the constable deems it an inadvertent decapitation, she can't believe anyone could be so careless as to accidentally lose his head. Determined to discover the truth, the new duchess pays her first social call. Because even if she can't find her way around her palatial home, she certainly knows her way around a murder.

A Sinister Establishment

Finally, Flora Hyde-Clare has wrest the narrative from Beatrice by finding her own compelling murder mystery to solve. Well, it's not entirely her own because the victim is her cousin's former beau, Mr. Theodore Davies, whose father cruelly separated the young lovers (though not so cruelly, for it left the door open for Bea to woo the Duke of Kesgrave). Bea insists, of course, that the law clerk's death was merely an accident. If only he had not been in the path of that wretched carriage! Oh, but Flora knows that evasive look on her cousin's face. Bea is hiding something. Clearly, Davies had gotten himself entangled in some nefarious business, and Flora is determined to discover the truth despite the danger it puts her in. Or is that because it puts her in danger? After all, any heroine worth her salt must be willing to take on a great deal of personal risk. And Flora has her mind set on being a heroine of the highest order.

A Boldly Daring Scheme

A Treacherous Performance

Daniella Brodsky

Wendy Markham

Three young women searching for love in the big city come together at the finest spot in Manhattan to find the perfect ice cream sundae where they share their problems, enjoy their friendship, and commiserate about their romantic ups and downs, but they soon discover that there is more to life than hot fudge. Original.

Never on a Sundae

A woman in the British Horticultural Society! The very idea horrifies everyone, including ardent horticulturalist Lavinia Harlow, whose own name has been put forth for membership by the provoking Marquess of Huntly. He does it as a joke, of course, to get back at her for an imagined slight-well, to be fair, she had insulted his writing-and Vinnie, older sister to the infamous Harlow Hoyden, is far too sensible to rise to his ridiculous challenge. Determined to head off further scandal (her name has already been recorded in the betting book at Brooks's!), Vinnie dashes off a polite note refusing the honor-which she has every intention of sending. Really. Only she can't help but chafe at the way everyone keeps demanding that she decline at once, even the marquess. Oh, especially the marquess, whose perfection she finds intolerable. Who ever heard of a gentleman being so handsome and so intelligent and so well informed about foreign flora? Clearly, the man needs to be taken down a peg, and somehow, despite all twenty-four years of faultless propriety, Vinnie is just the hoyden to do it.

The Other Harlow Girl

A Malevolent Connection

When she discovers that she has inherited a plot of land in North Carolina from her late mother, Tallulah West, who refuses to follow in the footsteps of her father, a famous furniture designer, embarks on a journey of self-discovery to the South where she unexpectedly discovers her true path in life. Original.

Tallulahland

When her boss Mim Carter, a notorious trend forecaster, loses her touch, Megan, while trying to get Mim back on track, is thrown into chaos, suddenly unsure of her own life, which results in much hilarity, self-reflection, and even murder. Original.

Mim Warner's Lost Her Cool

Having inexplicably nabbed the Duke of Kesgrave, twenty-six-year-old spinster Beatrice Hyde-Clare is determined to marry him at once and no amount of handwringing from anxious family members, worried friends and well-meaning acquaintances will convince her to delay. Except...maybe she is a little swayed by her uncle's efforts to make amends for treating her with cold indifference during her childhood. And her aunt's concern about the growing scandal around her unfortunate habit of unmasking murderers in the middle of society events isn't entirely unfounded. And then there's the truly unfathomable appearance on her doorstep of the former Miss Brougham, the spiteful heiress whose cruel taunts derailed Bea's social career. Remarkably, the society matron has a mystery to solve and knows Bea is the only person who can help her. A dead grandfather, a missing jewel, a cryptic letter, an opportunity to condescend to her archnemesis-the case seems simple enough. And yet somehow it all goes terribly, horribly wrong.

A Treacherous Performance: A Regency Cozy

A Ghastly Spectacle

Verity Lark — England's most tenacious gossip, the London Daily Gazette's most dogged reporter — relishes a challenge, which is why she refuses Colson Hardwicke's offer of menial employment. If the infuriating scoundrel really needs the sister of a radical reformer to be distracted with girlish chitchat, he can bloody well erupt into giggles!


She has more important things to do — figuring out why Hardwicke is interested in the radical reformer. During her previous run-in with him, he had shown himself to be the superior tactician, and she is determined to even the score. Proving that the radical reformer is an escaped fugitive is one way. Saving the country from a Luddite insurrection is another.


But when Verity stumbles across a dead man in a rundown boarding house, the competition suddenly stops being a game. There is more going on than she had ever imagined, and as she struggles to untangle Hardwicke's web of machinations, she is forced to wonder if she has been a pawn all along.

Welcome to the second installment of the Verity Lark Mysteries, where secrets run deep, and every move could be her last.

A Lark’s Flight

As the London Daily Gazette’s popular gossip columnist, she is extremely adept at sneaking into houses, assuming disguises and overseeing a vast network of spies to ensure she stays abreast of the beau monde’s comings and goings. If it sometimes seems as though she was hiding behind the settee during a particularly fierce quarrel between a husband and his wife, it’s most likely because she was hiding behind the settee during their fierce quarrel.

But nobody knows her.

Writing under a pen name, Verity safeguards her anonymity via an elaborately constructed alter ego. Seemingly everywhere, Mr. Twaddle-Thum is in fact nowhere. He has never met with an informant or skulked in a dark alley. He simply does not exist. That is why she is so startled to discover he has recently been spotted at a variety of locations. A Twaddle-Sham is knocking about London and in such a ham-handed manner he is inciting people to murder.

At least that’s what Verity thinks is happening when she stumbles across a plot to kill him.

Or her.

Who is the real target?

Well, see, that’s just the problem because Verity can’t actually say.

For the first time in years, she isn’t sure of anything.

Lynn Messina

About

Books

Join the club