The Curse of Ill-Gotten Gains (Casebook of Barnaby Adair #12)

#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens is back with a complex case in which her favorite sleuths must wade through the attendees of a ton house party to discover which one was moved to murder their host.

When the genial and highly regarded Sir Montague Underhill is found murdered in his own orchard, Inspector Stokes is dispatched, together with Barnaby and Penelope Adair, to Patchcote Grange to uncover the culprit. But a fashionable house party provides a large cast of potential suspects, and when the investigators learn what business Sir Montague had been dabbling in, the challenge before them grows even larger.

Richard Percival has bowed to familial pressure and agreed to attend a tonnish house party at Patchcote Grange, where the gathering’s unabashed aim is to introduce eligible gentlemen to suitable young ladies. Two of Richard’s elderly aunts have assured him that Miss Rosalind Hemmings will make him the perfect wife, and after meeting Miss Hemmings over dinner on the first evening of the party, Richard is sufficiently intrigued to be willing to learn—indeed, he’s even looking forward to learning—more of the unusually direct young lady.

But on coming downstairs the following morning, he hears an anguished scream for help. On racing outside to the orchard from whence the scream came, he finds his possibly-intended standing over the very dead body of their universally well-regarded host, Sir Montague Underhill. This is clearly a matter for Scotland Yard, and Richard wastes no time in summoning Barnaby and Penelope Adair and Inspector Stokes to the company’s aid. For, indeed, very soon, it becomes blatantly clear that the murderer is one of those presently residing in the house.

On arriving at the Grange, Penelope, Barnaby, and Stokes are confronted with a dauntingly large cast of potential suspects. Wedding through the throng takes time, but on uncovering Sir Montague’s private means of earning a little extra cash, it becomes ever more likely that his murderer is, indeed, one of the guests at the house. All too soon, the questions facing the investigators become whether Sir Montague learned a secret someone was desperate to conceal, and if so, what secret was powerful enough to compel an otherwise reasonable man to murder?