Veronica Heley

Ellie Quicke finds you can choose your friends but not your family. Poppy's wealthy father hadn't liked the look of the men whom his twin daughters intended to marry, and had set them up in the Magpie fashion boutique to ensure they would be able to support themselves; at the same time ensuring that the girls made a will in one another's favour. The business prospered and expanded until, many years later, skeletons start to come out of the closet....

Ellie is desperate to find someone to look after her elderly housekeeper, Rose. But employing a carer proves to be a mixed blessing, for Claire is heavily involved with a local church with a charismatic pastor, who -- seemingly coincidentally -- is looking to Ellie's charitable trust for financial help. Can Ellie trust Claire and Pastor Ambrose?

Ellie's friend on the police force asks her to enquire about some deaths in the community which might or might not be suicide, and various relatives of the deceased confirm their suspicions. Unbeknown to the police, an elderly lady moving in and out of dementia has come across some drugs and is using them to ease people in pain out of their misery. At the same time, the project to turn the quirky, turreted Pryce House into a hotel is dogged by problems...

The kindness of strangers comes under suspicion in the enjoyable new Ellie Quicke mystery. Ellie's husband Thomas, a retired minister, is suspicious when he receives not one but five letters advising him that he has been bequeathed money by five different people in their wills. He barely knew three of his benefactors, and what could possibly connect him to the other two strangers? Sensing something isn't right, and with Thomas's reputation at...

He was like no other hermit she had ever seen. He was young, strong, dark and vowed to silence. His name was Keren, but he was always called the Hermit. And as he touched her arm, and healed it, a bond was forged between them – a hopeless bond, for she was Joanna of Leybourne, ward of the Count, and he was a man sentenced to build a church with his bare hands, as expiation for the crime of murdering his wife. . . This title was originally published...

Murder is no joke, as Ellie Quicke is only too aware in this absorbing and entertaining mystery. Ellie Quicke is shocked when her daughter, Diana, turns up at her door with a suitcase in tow. Bunny Brewster has died of an overdose, and Diana's husband, Evan, is convinced that she is responsible for his friend's death. It seems that Diana and four other neglected, bored wives of Evan's friends recently joked about ways to kill their husbands. Diana's...

While Ellie's away, murder will play...Is the death of Ellie's son-in-law really the result of a burglary gone wrong? Ellie's absence abroad is disastrous for her daughter, Diana, when her husband is attacked by intruders and left for dead one night, it falls to Ellie's next-door neighbor , Susan, to reluctantly pick up the pieces and take in Diana's children. Is Evan's death really the result of a burglary gone wrong? Joining forces with her aunt,...

Raven-haired Sophia knew him as Philip Rich, a poor relative of the Earl of Rame. And she knew that he awakened in her a craving that her betrothed, Sir John Bladen, could not satisfy. But she was pledged to wealthy Sir John in order to save her beloved Tarrant Hall. So she scorned Philip's love only to discover, to her horror, that he was, in reality, the famous Earl himself. And now the Earl has vowed to humble Sophia and to avenge his honor. His...

"Wealthy Marcia Tredgold and her daughter, Charlotte, want Bea Abbot to find them replacements for staff who have left under a cloud. Bea discovers that all those dismissed were close to Marcia Tredgold, and senses that something is not right. Were they framed, and if so by whom - and why? Even more curiously, when Marcia Tredgold gets Bea alone, she asks her to find out who killed her two cats. Bea resists becoming involved in the strange goings-on...