Dinner most deadly : another John Pickett mystery

Format:

Book

Title:

Dinner most deadly : another John Pickett mystery

Author:

South, Sheri Cobb author

ISBN:

9781432830960

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

Waterville, Maine : Five Star, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning, [2015]

Physical Description:

233 pages ; 23 cm.

Series title(s):

John Pickett mysteries.

Number in series:

[4]

Summary:

When Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, returns from her sojourn to Scotland restless and out of sorts, her friend Emily, Lady Dunnington, decides what Julia needs is a lover. Lady Dunnington plans a dinner party with carefully selected 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. Also, Emily's 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 Emily have a heated discussion that 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 grace 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 tsk of informing her that their masquerade as a married couple in Scotland has resulted in their being legally wed. Beset by distractions - not least 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.

Subject(s):

Police -- England -- London -- Fiction.

Aristocracy (Social class) -- Fiction.

Widows -- Fiction.

Geographic Term:

England -- London.

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Fiction.

Mystery fiction.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Salem Main Library	MYSTERY South, S.	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

When Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, returns from Scotland restless and out of sorts, her friend Emily Dunnington plans a select dinner party with half a dozen male guests from whom Julia may choose a lover. But Emily's dinner ends in disaster when one of her guests, Sir Reginald Montague, is shot dead. When Bow Street Runner John Pickett is summoned to Emily's house, he is faced with the awkward task of informing Lady Fieldhurst that their recent masquerade as a married couple (Family Plot) has resulted in their being legally wed. Beset by distractions--including the humiliating annulment procedure 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.

Reviews (1)

Kirkus Review

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. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.