A PRETTY DECEIT

A sleuthing couple still recovering from the horrors of World War I investigate murder and treason.

Verity Kent and her husband, Sidney, are visiting Wiltshire to help Verity’s Aunt Ernestine, who’s bitterly unhappy over the state of her house, which was occupied by the RAF, and the fate of her only remaining son, who returned home blind. There are missing valuables and money problems, so a vanished maid is low on the priority list until her body is found in a shallow grave. Unbeknownst even to Sidney, Verity was a spy during the war, and for 15 months, she thought Sidney dead while he was also doing secret work. Both still suffer from wartime stress, and they’ve recently been involved in several cases of murder and possible treason involving the highly placed Lord Ardmore, who’s having them watched. When the body of Ernestine’s gardener is found, the police arrest his wife, who, broken by the strain of war, took to drink and constantly fought with him. Verity and Sidney must also chase down clues in coded messages from their friend Max Westfield’s murdered father that involve one of Lord Ardmore’s plots. Verity, suddenly plagued by nightmares of a wartime experience, finds herself marked for death by a fanatical officer who misunderstood her part in it.

A thrilling and touching amalgam of wartime suffering, high crimes, and deadly secrets.