The Rushworth Family Plot

The fourth book in the Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney Mystery series, which finds the amateur sleuths caught up in the whirlwind of the London Season—and in a murderous scheme involving the family of Edmund and Fanny Bertram.

Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney understand each other perfectly; it's a pity their families do not. A series of misunderstandings, misplaced pride, and—indeed—prejudice, has led their parents to deem the pair unsuited to wed. Now, with the Season approaching, Juliet has been sent to London with a new wardrobe and orders to prove herself worthy of someone better than the snobby Darcys.

Meanwhile, Jonathan has been forced to accept an invitation to stay with old friends Edmund and Fanny Bertram at the house of Edmund's brother, Sir Thomas. Oblivious to and undesiring of female attention other than Juliet's, Jonathan is in danger of being ensnared by Caroline Bingley's plans to make herself—or her daughter—mistress of Pemberley.

But when the former husband of Edmund's sister Maria, Mr. Rushworth, is discovered dead, Jonathan and Juliet find themselves with problems far weightier than the marriage market.

In one of the greatest scandals of its day, Maria abandoned her husband for the notorious rake Henry Crawford and, when he wouldn't marry her, was forced to flee to the continent in disgrace. Now Maria is back, with a daughter she claims Mr. Rushworth fathered after their divorce—and who he wrote into his will just before his death.

Now Jonathan and Juliet must unmask a killer before the drama surrounding the Rushworth family fortune claims another victim.