A Verity Lark Mystery Series by Lynn Messina

From the author of the BEATRICE HYDE-CLARE mysteries comes a new series with many fresh faces as well a few familiar old ones.Verity Lark knows everything.As the London Daily Gazette's popular gossip columnist, she is extremely adept at sneaking into houses, assuming disguises and overseeing a vast network of spies to ensure she stays abreast of the beau monde's comings and goings... moreFrom the author of the BEATRICE HYDE-CLARE mysteries comes a new series with many fresh faces as well a few familiar old ones.Verity Lark knows everything.As the London Daily Gazette's popular gossip columnist, she is extremely adept at sneaking into houses, assuming disguises and overseeing a vast network of spies to ensure she stays abreast of the beau monde's comings and goings. If it sometimes seems as though she was hiding behind the settee during a particularly fierce quarrel between a husband and his wife, it's most likely because she was hiding behind the settee during their fierce quarrel.But nobody knows her.Writing under a pen name, Verity safeguards her anonymity via an elaborately constructed alter ego. Seemingly everywhere, Mr. Twaddle-Thum is in fact nowhere. He has never met with an informant or skulked in a dark alley. He simply does not exist. That is why she is so startled to discover he has recently been spotted at a variety of locations. A Twaddle-Sham is knocking about London and in such a ham-handed manner he is inciting people to murder.At least that's what Verity thinks is happening when she stumbles across a plot to kill him.Or her.Who is the real target?Well, see, that's just the problem because Verity can't actually say.For the first time in years, she isn't sure of anything. less

Verity Lark — England's most tenacious gossip, the London Daily Gazette ’s most dogged reporter — relishes a challenge, which is why she refuses Colson Hardwicke's offer of menial employment. If the infuriating scoundrel really needs the sister of a radical reformer to be distracted with girlish chitchat, then he can bloody well erupt into giggles!She has more important things to do — namely, figuring out why Hardwicke is interested in the radical reformer... moreVerity Lark — England's most tenacious gossip, the London Daily Gazette ’s most dogged reporter — relishes a challenge, which is why she refuses Colson Hardwicke's offer of menial employment. If the infuriating scoundrel really needs the sister of a radical reformer to be distracted with girlish chitchat, then he can bloody well erupt into giggles!She has more important things to do — namely, figuring out why Hardwicke is interested in the radical reformer. During her previous run-in with him, he had shown himself to be the superior tactician, and she is determined to even the score. Proving that the radical reformer is an escaped fugitive is one way. Saving the country from a Luddite insurrection is another.But when Verity stumbles across a dead man in a rundown boarding house, the competition suddenly stops being a game. There is more going on than she had ever imagined, and as she struggles to untangle Hardwicke's web of machinations, she is forced to wonder if she has been a pawn all along. less

It is hardly surprising Verity Lark can’t sleep at night with all the thoughts darting through her her recent stay in Newgate, her debt to Colson Hardwicke, the horrible abuse suffered by the children at Fortescue’s that her reporting on the orphan asylum several years earlier had failed to uncover. And then of course there are the shooting lessons she has promised to give to the Duchess of Kesgrave... moreIt is hardly surprising Verity Lark can’t sleep at night with all the thoughts darting through her her recent stay in Newgate, her debt to Colson Hardwicke, the horrible abuse suffered by the children at Fortescue’s that her reporting on the orphan asylum several years earlier had failed to uncover. And then of course there are the shooting lessons she has promised to give to the Duchess of Kesgrave. Verity has spent three months cruelly mocking the former spinster for her investigative pretensions, and now she is obligated to teach the woman how to fire a deadly weapon. It is madness! Thank goodness she stumbles onto a forged antiquities ring when she visits the British Museum with Hardwicke. Finally—something benign to focus her brain on. Alas, when a murderer strikes close to home, threatening every member of her household, Verity realizes just how grossly she misunderstood the situation. Far from harmless, the counterfeit scheme is in deadly earnest, and now she must figure out the identity of a ruthless enemy who doesn’t care whom he hurts in his quest to eliminate her.Welcome to the fourth installment of the Verity Lark Mysteries, where secrets run deep, and every move could be her last. less