Dinner Most Deadly: Another John Pickett Mystery

by Sheri Cobb South

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781733439121
Publisher:	Sonatina Press
Publication date:	03/08/2020
Series:	John Pickett Mysteries , #4
Pages:	302
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

At age sixteen, Sheri Cobb South discovered Georgette Heyer, and came to the startling realization that she had been born into the wrong century. Although she doubtless would have been a chambermaid had she actually lived in Regency England, that didn't stop her from fantasizing about waltzing the night away in the arms of a handsome, wealthy, and titled gentleman.
Since Georgette Heyer was dead and could not write any more Regencies, Ms. South came to the conclusion she would have to do it herself. In addition to the John Pickett mysteries, she has also written several Regency romances.
A native of Alabama, she now lives in Loveland, Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

2015-07-16
An attempt at matchmaking takes a wrong turn into murder.Emily, Lady Dunnington, thinks her widowed friend Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, needs a lover. It's dull in town, the season is over, and so Lady Dunnington invites a quintet of candidates to a dinner party at which she and Lady Fieldhurst are the only women. Lady Dunnington lives apart from her husband and thinks she can do just as she wants, including setting her own sights on the disreputable but handsome Lord Rupert Latham, with whom Lady Fieldhurst once attempted an assignation. Lord Dunnington's arrival in the middle of the party doesn't exactly inspire romance, and the five gentlemen invited find excuses to leave before they can partake of their port. Lord Rupert doesn't go far: someone shoots him in the chest and tosses the pistol away. Although Lady Fieldhurst is shocked at his death, she admits to herself that she's relieved. She's already lost her heart, though to a most unsuitable man, the Bow Street Runner John Pickett, who helped her escape hanging for her late husband's murder. To her dismay, he's assigned to the case of the murdered Lord Rupert. His dismay is even greater; he has to find a way to reveal that, thanks to a peculiarity of Scottish law, he and Lady Fieldhurst are accidentally married. While he interviews the dinner guests, each of whom had a reason to hate Lord Rupert, Pickett faces the prospect of a humiliating means of annulling his marriage to Lady Fieldhurst, though each secretly wishes it could be otherwise. In fact, the greatest suspense here is whether Pickett will overcome his diffidence and Lady Fieldhurst her pride or whether the contrived variation on that Regency wheeze, the marriage in name only, will drag on into a sequel. Despite South's blithe disregard of social customs of Jane Austen's era, this fourth frothy whodunit for Pickett (Family Plot, 2014, etc.) has a satisfying surprise or two and a duo who really are made for each other.

Kirkus Reviews