Letter to Readers

December, 2024

Happy Holidays to you and your special people! No matter what you celebrate, it’s definitely time for the festive part of the year. Here in Australia, schools are finishing up for the year with end of year celebration concerts, graduations, and arts and craft activities that are all about celebrating the festivities. My children and grandchildren are getting ready for Christmas, and I’ve been out sourcing lovely gifts for them all. I can’t wait to see them enjoy the day - it’s always fun buying and giving, especially to those you love.

If you haven’t already had a chance to read my latest book, DEAD BESIDE THE THAMES was released on October 17, 2024, in all formats. 

This is the ninth volume in The Casebook of Barnaby Adair and in this novel we find Charlie Hastings.

Charlie is astonished to find himself accused of murdering Viscount Sedbury. Admittedly, Charlie had two heated altercations with Sedbury in the hours preceding the man’s death, but as Charlie is quick to point out to Stokes – and to Barnaby and Penelope – there are a multitude of others in the ton who will be delighted to learn of Sedbury’s demise.

As Penelope, Barnaby, and Stokes start assembling a suspect list, Charlie’s prediction proves only too accurate. Yet the most puzzling aspect is who on earth managed to kill Sedbury. The man was a hulking brute, large, very strong, and known as a vicious brawler. Who managed to subdue him enough to strangle him?

As the number of suspects steadily increases, the investigators are forced to ask if, perhaps, one of their suspects hired a killer capable of taking Sedbury down. With that possibility thrown into the calculations, narrowing their suspect list becomes a futile exercise.

Their pursuit of the truth leads them to investigate the many shady avenues of Sedbury’s life, much to the consternation of Sedbury’s father, the Marquess of Rattenby. Rattenby does not want Sedbury’s distasteful proclivities exposed for all the world to see, further harming the other family members who Sedbury has taken great delight in tormenting for most of his life.

In the end, the resolution of the crime lies in old-fashioned policing coupled with the fresh twists Barnaby and Penelope bring to Scotland Yard’s efforts.

And when the truth is finally revealed, it raises questions that strike to the very heart of justice and what, with such a victim and such a murderer, true justice actually means.

If you’d like to find out more about DEAD BESIDE THE THAMES, and possibly arrange your pre-order, click on the cover below for details. 

Next year, my next novel will be arriving in March, 2025. MARRIAGE AND MURDER is the next book in my Barnaby Adair series. Five years ago, Henry, Lord Glossup, was suspected of murdering his late wife. Although he was exonerated and the true murderer caught, Henry has been accused of murdering a lady again, in the same fashion. He appeals to Barnaby and Penelope for help, as does Stokes who, having been the inspector in charge of the previous case, is tasked with solving the current one. The investigators soon establish that the evidence implicating Henry is flimsy and circumstantial, and his alibi is easily verified. But that leaves them, along with the sister of the deceased, to unravel the tangled puzzle of who strangled Viola Huntingdon and was it the secret admirer she referred to only as ‘H?’ 

MARRIAGE AND MURDER is not yet available for pre-order or advertised anywhere - more information will be following in the next couple of weeks!

That’s it from me for the rest of the year! I really hope you get the opportunity to spend time with loved ones and have a restful break before the start of next year. 

As always, stay safe, and if all else fails, sit down and read a good book!

Looking Ahead:

March, 2025 - MARRIAGE AND MURDER, Volume 10 in the Casebook of Barnaby Adair series.

As ever, I truly appreciate your wonderful support. As long as you are there, wanting to read my stories, I'm happy to keep writing them!

Stephanie