Showing results for "Flora" in Women Sleuths

When Flora Steele sets off for a peaceful vacation with crime writer Jack Carrington, the last thing she expects to find is a body at their pretty rental cottage! More baffling, they discover Roger Gifford was a man with plenty of friends, and the villagers seem devastated by his sudden death.... So why was he murdered? Who has blood on their hands? His estranged wife, Beatrice, his wayward younger brother, Lionel, or the suspicious newcomer, Mercy Dearlove? Inquisitive, Flora joins forces with handsome Jack to find out how the poor man came to such an untimely end.

It’s a sunny morning in Abbeymead as Flora cycles through the village and knocks on the door of the local library, planning to deliver a gift to librarian Maud Frobisher to mark her retirement. But Flora is shocked when she finds Maud slumped in the corner, and even more startled when she recognizes the man holding the murder weapon–an enormous hardback book. Flora’s known Lowell Gracey since her college days, but what is he doing working for Maud and now the main suspect in her murder?

Sussex, 1957: When Flora Steele and handsome crime writer Jack Carrington attend the grand re-opening of the Priory Hotel in the beautiful little village of Abbeymead, their day out is cut short when the flame-haired female singer in the band suddenly drops dead before their eyes. Flora is stunned by the unexpected turn of events and immediately deduces foul play. Beverly Russo was a spirited young woman with a big voice, and Flora is determined to get to the bottom of her untimely demise—especially as the detective sergeant leading the investigation is so hopeless.

Sussex, 1959. The sun is shining on the breathtaking castle as the Abbeymead Historical Society prepare their re-enactment of the Battle of Lewes. But the fun ends abruptly when council worker Alex Vicary falls to his death from the castle ramparts. A shadowy figure runs from the scene, but Alex was a beloved member of the community… who could possibly want him dead?

Amateur detective and bookshop owner Flora Steele and her dashing new husband Jack Carrington are finally embarking on the honeymoon of a lifetime. But will gorgeous gondola rides be ruined by their most heart-stopping case ever?

Some secrets hide in plain sight. Others are stolen in the dead of night... Flora Maguire has everything she could wish for—a beautiful Belgravia home, a devoted husband, and baby Arthur to dote on. But her perfect world is shattered when she accepts an invitation to tour St Philomena’s Children’s Hospital in poverty-stricken Southwark. The conditions are appalling, but the real horror lies in a chilling discovery: children are vanishing from the hospital.

Even the most glamorous stately homes hide secrets and lies from the past... When Flora receives a shocking telegram about her father’s sudden death in a riding accident, she rushes back to her childhood home, Cleeve Abbey. Once a governess to young Eddy, Viscount Trent, and daughter of the Earl’s trusted butler, Flora finds the house steeped in unease. Her plans to lay her father to rest beside her mother, Lily, are upended when mystery surrounds Lily’s final resting place.

Flora Hyde-Clare’s visit to her beau’s ancestral home was always going to be a disaster. Her mother’s nervous habit of rambling nonsensically, her father’s thinly veiled contempt, her own desperate desire to make a good impression on Sebastian Holcroft’s parents, and his seemingly endless parade of siblings all guaranteed that their stay in the country would be intolerably awkward at best. Yet for all her dire misgivings, Flora never imagined one of the household servants would wind up slain in his own bed. But that is precisely what happens to the handsome young land steward.

When 29-year-old Flora Lively loses both of her parents and inherits the family business, she tries hard to make a success of her father's dream - even at the expense of her own dreams. Burdened with Marshall, her father's handpicked American manager, Flora finds solace in her friendship with Joy, an elderly client she helped move into the Maples, the local retirement community.

In the magical and historically rich city of Siena, Italy, old paintings are as common as cobblestones. But what if some of those paintings are forgeries? And what if your employers at Restauro Lorenzetti, a respected firm of art conservators, might be smuggling antiquities? After colleague and roommate Ernst Mann is found dead in the street below their apartment balcony, Flora Garibaldi suspects her bosses are crooks. The Italian police, after ruling Flora innocent of murder, persuade her to spy on her employers.

Summer storms can bring unwelcome surprises. During the rainiest July on record for the people of Ventris County in Oklahoma, in the midst of a violent thunderstorm, a stranger is murdered. When a friend becomes the second person to die under suspicious circumstances, local sleuth Darcy Campbell is drawn into the investigation. Evidence points toward someone she cares about, but has loyalty blinded her to the truth? Danger is closer to Darcy and her mother, Flora, than either of them suspect.

Before the long nightmare ended, Darcy would often wish her mother had not opened that letter from an unknown woman. But, she did open it and shared it with her daughter, plunging both Darcy Campbell and Flora Tucker into a tale of an unsolved mystery, a web of secrets, and the discovery of an unsuspected traitor.

From a master of suspense comes a chilling novel that explores the dangers lurking closer than you think. Because even in the perfect family, you never know what is going on behind closed doors…. This is what happened… It was a case guaranteed to spark a media feeding frenzy—a young mother...