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England, early May, 1926After the funerals of the late Duke of Sutherland and his daughter-in-law, Charlotte, (and of course Grimsby, the blackmailing valet), the younger members of the family-Philippa Darling, her cousins Christopher and Francis, and Crispin, Viscount St George-are invited to a weekend party at the Dower House in Dorset by Dowager Lady Peckham's children, Constance and Gilbert. Once in Dorset, things go sideways very quickly. Lady Peckham's ward, the lovely Dutch emigree Johanna de Vos, has been making a dead set at Crispin, and has had him all to herself for the past few days. Constance's time has been monopolized by Francis, while Pippa wouldn't throw Crispin a rope if he were going down for the third time. However, the house party also includes the beautiful Lady Laetitia Marsden, a former dalliance of Crispin's, and she doesn't take the competition for his affections-or his title and fortune-lying down. As a result, when the lovely Johanna is found murdered, the suspects are plentiful. Did Lady Laetitia decide to remove her rival? Did Lord Geoffrey, her brother, the handsy one, lose control and strangle the woman he was trying to seduce? Or perhaps Crispin was tired of the relentless pursuit, and took matters into his own hands? When Lady Peckham also dies, miles away in Wiltshire, the case develops yet one more wrinkle. Now Pippa, with some help from Christopher, must figure out who wanted the two women dead, hopefully before the murderer can consign them to the same fate.

England, late April, 1926 When Henry Astley, Duke of Sutherland, turns up dead in bed at the end of an afternoon spent calling his family on the carpet, everyone assumes that the excitement finished the old boy off. He was quite old and also quite vociferous in his opinions, so it isn't an unreasonable assumption. It isn't until the next morning, when the duke's valet and confidant is found shot to death in the hedge maze, that the whole thing takes on a more sinister cast. Bright Young Thing Philippa Darling, her best friend Christopher and his brother Francis, as well as their parents, Lord and Lady Herbert, have all been summoned to Sutherland Hall for a dressing down. So has cousin Crispin, the future duke, along with his parents, the Viscount and Viscountess St George. Everyone has a string of small peccadillos they're trying to hide, along with a few guilty secrets they don't want anyone to know about. The only question is, which secret was worth killing for? Pippa isn't worried on her own behalf. She had no reason to want the duke dead. But when it looks like suspicion might fall on Christopher, she has no choice but to step up. She'll sacrifice Francis if she has to, and would throw Crispin to the wolves without a second thought, but Scotland Yard will arrest Christopher over her dead body. And it might just come to that.