Bøger af Sheri Cobb South

A duke in disguise . . . a damsel in distress . . . A match made in

In disgrace with her aristocratic in-laws, recently widowed Lady Fieldhurst is exiled to Scotland with her three young nephews in tow. On impulse, she and the boys decide to stay at an isolated seaside inn under an assumed name, where they can enjoy a holiday far away from the scandal that still plagues the family. But trouble soon finds them when the boys discover an unconscious woman on the beach-a woman who bears a startling resemblance to the local laird's daughter, missing and presumed dead for the last fifteen years. Uncertain whether to welcome her as a returning prodigal or denounce her as a fraud, Angus Kirkbride sends to London for a Bow Street runner-which presents a dilemma for Lady Fieldhurst, since she has chosen to call herself Mrs. Pickett after the handsome young man who saved her from hanging for the murder of her husband. Meanwhile John Pickett, hopelessly pining for Lady Fieldhurst, resolves to forget her by marrying another. When magistrate Patrick Colquhoun receives Kirkbride's summons, he packs Pickett off to Scotland before his most junior runner can do anything rash. Upon his arrival, Pickett is surprised (though not at all displeased) to discover that he has acquired a "wife" in the person of Lady Fieldhurst. But when Angus Kirkbride dies only hours after announcing his intention of changing his will in his daughter's favor, "Mr. and Mrs. Pickett" must join forces to discover the truth about a family reunion suddenly turned deadly.

Eager to escape London following the scandal of her husband's death, Lady Fieldhurst accepts an invitation to spend the summer in rural Yorkshire as the guest of Sir Gerald and Lady Hollingshead. She soon discovers, however, that country life is not the panacea she had hoped for: tension reigns and tempers flare at Hollingshead Place, due in large part to Lady Hollingshead's ambitions for her daughter, 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 a guest in the house, Picket must keep his connection to Bow Street a secret. Pickett obliges by presenting himself as her footman, complete with livery and powdered hair. But Pickett 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 school girl infatuation for the faux footman. Then there is the problem of Lady Fieldhurst herself, at once an able assistant and an all too pleasant distraction...

Sir Aubrey Tabor began with the most altruistic of motives. When the Brundys' (The Weaver Takes a Wife) seaside wedding trip is interrupted by a young woman claiming to be Mr. Brundy's sister, Sir Aubrey promises to do what he can in order to relieve his friend of an imposter whose presence poses a threat to marital bliss. But Polly proves to be more than a match for Sir Aubrey, and with each encounter, he finds himself thinking less of his friend's honeymoon and more about having one of his own...

Forced by bankruptcy and scandal into exile in France, Lord Waverly expects never to return to his homeland until, staggering home from a gaming hell in the wee hours of the morning, he encounters a young novice escaping from a convent. When she asks him to escort her to England, promising that her English grandfather will reward him handsomely for her safe conveyance, Waverly reluctantly agrees. Alas, Waverly soon realizes the enormity of his task. When he delivers the irrepressible Lisette to her grandfather's home only to discover that the old man is dead, Waverly is left with no alternative but to offer her the protection of his name. And when he is unexpectedly reunited with the woman whose marriage precipitated his flight to France, Waverly begins to discover that his marriage of convenience is likely to prove very inconvenient indeed...

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 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 . . .

Frankie Foster is the sheltered daughter of a proper Southern lady and a prominent judge, but she really wants to be a movie star. In spite of her family's misgivings, she boards a train and heads for Hollywood in search of fame and fortune. Frankie eventually finds work at Monumental Pictures as an extra in a swashbuckling costume picture. Unfortunately, her career threatens to be short-lived when producer Arthur Cohen staggers onto the soundstage in an apparent drunken rage and drops dead at her feet. The police dismiss the death as a heart attack, but then, they don't know about the quarrel Frankie heard between the producer and his brother/partner. With filming suspended indefinitely, Frankie must discover the truth if she is to save the picture and her fledgling career. "Sheri Cobb South has a witty and refreshingly original voice. If you haven't sampled any of her books, you've missed a real treat." --Romance Reviews Today

A lady in distress . . .A gentleman in a dress?Amiable but clueless young baronet Sir Harry Hawthorne thought he was making a marriage of convenience to a childhood friend-until his fiancée catches the eye of dashing and dangerous Lord Mannerly. Suddenly Sir Harry's jealousy is roused to the point that he assumes the identity of his reclusive grandmother in order to keep the all-too-grown-up Miss Olivia Darby under his watchful eye.But the course of true love never did run smooth, and among the obstacles Sir Harry must face are a love-struck younger sister, an elderly widower with an amorous interest in the faux "Lady Hawthorne," and a rival more ruthless than Sir Harry ever imagined . . ."A book you can give to friends who don't read romance but enjoy the wit of Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde." -All About Romance

Bow Street Runner John Pickett and Julia, Lady Fieldhurst seem to have reached 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 open. Given the lack of evidence, he can only assume 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 in the act.

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.

Haughty Lady Helen Radney is one of London's most beautiful women and the daughter of a duke, but her sharp tongue has frightened away most of her suitors. When her father gambles away his fortune, the duke's only chance for recouping his losses lies in marrying off Lady Helen to any man wealthy enough to take a bride with nothing to recommend her but a lovely face and an eight-hundred-year-old pedigree. Enter Mr. Ethan Brundy, once an illegitimate workhouse orphan, now owner of a Lancashire textile mill and one of England's richest men. When he glimpses Lady Helen at Covent Garden Theatre, he is instantly smitten and vows to marry her. But this commonest of commoners will have his work cut out for him if he hopes to win the heart of his aristocratic bride.

Sensible, levelheaded Tracy Brock knows exactly what she wants in a boy, and transfer student Jimbo Maxwell isn't it. After all, why should she be interested in a likeable if somewhat ignorant Alabama country boy with a Southern drawl thicker than sorghum molasses, when her boyfriend Anthony Pierce has everything a girl could ask for-with the possible exception of a personality? But Jimbo is crucial to the success of the Elmore High School football team, so Tracy agrees to tutor him in order to help him maintain the grades necessary for athletic eligibility. During their tutoring sessions, she comes to appreciate his sense of humor and downright decency, and discovers that her heart isn't nearly as invulnerable as she thought it was. Determined not to become romantically involved with a boy who has such bleak prospects for the future, she sets out to cure herself of a ridiculous infatuation. Suddenly practical Tracy finds herself behaving in some very impractical ways as she fights her growing attraction for her pupil. She can't really be falling for a redneck-can she?

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 select dinner party with half a dozen 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 his lady have a heated discussion which 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 (Family Plot) has resulted in their being legally wed. Beset by distractions-not the least of which are 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.

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.

In 1961, young schoolteacher Robin Fletcher is delighted to accompany her widowed aunt on a cruise from Barcelona to Venice-a voyage whose ports of call include some of the great cities of Europe. On her first night at sea, Robin is awakened by the moonlight flooding through her stateroom window. When she goes up on deck to admire the view, she observes one of her fellow passengers throwing something off the stern of the ship. Thus begins a series of strange incidents, each more bewildering, and more terrifying, than the last: a quarrel overheard among the ruins of Pompeii, the only word of which Robin can understand is her own name; an attempted assault in Istanbul's exotic Grand Bazaar; and, finally, a terrifying confrontation amidst the romantic and mysterious canals of Venice. And through it all there is Markos, the ship's enigmatic photographer, who seems to know more than he's telling. By the time the trip is over, will the voyage have changed Robin's life-or ended it?

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. Posing as a honeymoon couple, 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.