Letter to Readers

February, 2025

We’re already in February! Every year the weeks and months and years go by faster. This year we’ve had a very hot and dry summer, and today is no different. While it is lovely to have some heat, especially as the last few years has not delivered said heat, at the same time it would also be lovely to have a bit of rain to break up the days!

While I’m trying to find a cool place to sit, I can let you know about my upcoming novel, MARRIAGE AND MURDER. This is the next book in The Casebook of Barnaby Adair Series, Volume 10.

Henry, Lord Glossup, arrives on Barnaby and Penelope Adairs’ doorstep and begs their aid—and that of Stokes—in identifying the murderer of Viola Huntingdon, a middle-aged spinster who lived a largely blameless life in a country cottage in a tiny village close to Henry’s home. As Stokes has already been tapped to take the case, the investigators travel to Salisbury and thence to Ashmore village and throw themselves into the case.

While initially Henry was touted as a suspect, he is quickly eliminated, and with the help of the victim’s sister, Madeline, the investigators set out to discover all they can about the victim and who might have wished her ill. In such a small village, with a commensurately small population, the list of possible suspects is short, but the existence of Viola’s ‘secret admirer, H’ has everyone stumped. First, how could Viola, living in such a small community, have had a secret visitor, a man no one saw except at a distance? And who on earth is he, this H?

As the investigators piece together the clues of missing jewelry and sightings of H and follow the leads generated by opportunistic thieves, dodgy jewelers, and local moneylenders, a picture emerges that points to only one conclusion. But in small villages, things are rarely as they seem. Have the investigators got the right man in their sights, or have they been led astray?

MARRIAGE AND MURDER will be available in all formats from March 20, 2025. If you’d like to arrange your pre-order, please click on the cover below which will take you to your favourite retailers for each format - print, audio or digital.

We’ve also just opened a competition to celebrate the release of MARRIAGE AND MURDER. Click HERE and enter to get your chance to win one of five novels in your preferred format! Entries are open now, and close on March 1, 2025. Good luck!

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

Looking Ahead:

March 20, 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