#1
NYT
-bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns with a perplexing case in which her favorite sleuths must untangle a web of interconnected motives to identify the man who killed Thomas Cardwell.
When Thomas Cardwell, an upstanding man-of-business, is murdered, Roscoe enlists the aid of the best investigators in London - namely Barnaby and Penelope Adair and Inspector Stokes of Scotland Yard - to solve the puzzle of why anyone would want to kill a man as honest as Cardwell.
Dispatched by Roscoe, London's gambling king, to learn what "nefarious activity" an upstanding man-of-business has stumbled upon, Jordan Draper-Roscoe's own man-of-business-arrives at Thomas Cardwell's office to discover Cardwell very recently murdered.
Soon, Jordan finds himself working alongside the Adairs and Inspector Stokes as they search for clues as to why anyone would kill a man as unthreatening as Cardwell. Unexpectedly, Jordan finds himself drawn to Cardwell's family, especially Thomas's sister, Ruth, and as the investigation progresses, the greater Jordan's compulsion to find the murderer and bring the family resolution and respite grows.
Clue by clue, motive by surprising motive, the investigators seek to identify Cardwell's murderer and, along the way, uncover the "nefarious activity" he'd sought to bring to the authorities' attention. But in a case cluttered with intertwined motives and a web of potential suspects related to each other as well as the victim, finding the kernel of truth amid the chaff is no easy matter. Only through enlisting the help of the investigators' wider circle of supporters do they make any headway, and on the heels of uncovering a cascade of crimes, they finally-
finally
-close in on the man who murdered Thomas Cardwell.
A historical novel of 77,000 words interweaving mystery, crime, and a touch of romance.