Lynn Messina

Flora Hyde-Clare’s visit to her beau’s ancestral home was always going to be a disaster.

Despite suffering a few initial setbacks, the former Beatrice Hyde-Clare has settled into her new position nicely. But then she learns from a most unlikely source that Kesgrave’s malevolent uncle is scheming to destroy her happiness....

To be clear: Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, does not think every dead person in London is the victim of a sinister plot. The city is large, after all, and some of its inhabitants had to have died from innocent causes. Like Peter Huzza, who was killed in a horrifying steam engine accident....

Having inexplicably nabbed the duke of Kesgrave, 26-year-old spinster Beatrice Hyde-Clare is determined to marry him at once, and no amount of hand-wringing from anxious family members, worried friends, and well-meaning acquaintances will convince her to delay....

Earning the nickname Lady Agony was no minor achievement for Lady Agatha Bolingbroke. It required a great deal of effort to make herself so disagreeable, but she did it for a good cause: The fewer invitations she received, the more time she had to paint. Her mother, refusing to accept an...

Twenty-four-year-old Catherine Fellingham keeps a low profile - in society and in her family. A practical young woman, she leaves the spotlight to her beautiful younger sister and prefers quiet pursuits such as reading. But all that changes....

Bedeviled by Colson Hardwicke’s treatment—summarily dumping her via tersely worded message!—Verity Lark is lying awake in her bed seething over his behavior when she hears a floorboard creak.

Having long abandoned any hope of making a match, 26-year-old Beatrice Hyde Clare finds herself a little overwhelmed by her engagement to the Duke of Kesgrave. Cloying society matrons clamor for her attention while her aunt reels off an endless list of servants she will have to oversee....

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....

Since the new Duchess of Kesgrave cannot be swayed from her unfortunate interest in dead bodies, Lady Abercrombie decides to confront the matter head-on by hosting a murder mystery dinner party....

Beatrice, Duchess of Kesgrave, will not do the bidding of Hell and Fury Hawes. It does not matter how difficult it is to find new murder mysteries to investigate, especially ones where the victim was stabbed with a chisel.

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....

Why, yes, the former Beatrice Hyde-Clare is distracted. Having settled comfortably into marriage to the duke of Kesgrave, she is nevertheless surprised to find herself in an interesting condition....

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....

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 isn't surprised - charmed, delighted and puzzled, yes, but not surprised. It is Emma who is amazed. She has naturally concluded that...

Having solved the two murders that somehow fell in her path, Beatrice Hyde-Clare is on the lookout for a third....

If there is one thing Verity Lark finds more unsettling than having to give a shooting lesson to the woman whom she has ridiculed in print for months, it is having to give the lesson on the very same morning her alter ego Mr. Twaddle-Thum publishes an apology....

It is hardly surprising Verity Lark can’t sleep at night with all the thoughts darting through her mind.

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....

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....