SILENT IN THE SANCTUARY

The March family has the reputation of being wild as March hares, but when it comes to murder they are no fools.

Lady Julia Grey (formerly March) is in Italy with two of her brothers, recovering from the murder of her husband and her own near-death in a fire (Silent in the Grave, 2007). When Lord March sends for Julia’s brother Lysander, recently married to an Italian beauty, they all return home to Bellmont Abbey, a huge estate built 700 years ago as a Cistercian monastery. Julia is surprised to discover among her father’s guests Nicholas Brisbane, the enigmatic private investigator she had grown to love during the investigation of her husband’s murder. Brisbane is accompanied by his attractive but apparently silly fiancée, a woman Julia is sure he could never marry. Among the other guests are Julia’s sisters, Emma and Lucy, the latter recently engaged to wealthy Sir Cedric Eastley; Eastley’s cousin; Julia’s Italian friend Count Fornacci; her uncle Fly; and worldly Lucian Snow, his curate. Soon Lucy is found holding a bloody candlestick above the body of Snow. Julia’s valuable pearls are stolen. And a ghost walks the Abbey’s dark passages. Julia turns sleuth over the violent objections of Brisbane, their relationship sizzling as they trade barbs and information.

A sassy heroine and a masterful, secretive hero. Fans of romantic mystery could ask no more—except the promised sequel.