Family Plot
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- £3.99
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- £3.99
Publisher Description
In disgrace—again!—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.
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 he most junior Runner can do anything rash.
When Agnus Kirkbride dies only hours after announcing his intention to change his will in his daughter's favor, John Pickett and Lady Fieldhurst must join forces to discover the truth about a family reunion suddenly turned deadly.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Early in South's pleasing third Regency whodunit (after 2008's A Dead Bore), John Pickett, a Bow Street Runner, accompanies a London magistrate to Scotland to verify the identity of Angus Kirkbride's stepdaughter, Elspeth. Elspeth has been found barely conscious on the same beach from which she vanished 15 years earlier. Unbeknownst to Pickett, Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, and her two nephews were the discoverers of Elspeth, and Julia, desiring to travel incognito, has registered as Mrs. Pickett at the local inn. The detecting duo work out a plan, each secretly pleased to see the other, despite the great chasm between their social rankings. Suspicious characters abound when, following a celebratory ball in honor of Elspeth's return, Angus dies before he can sign his new will restoring Elspeth as heir. The jaw-dropping conclusion will have new readers scurrying to catch up on Pickett's previous adventures and eagerly anticipating the next installment.
