Elizabeth Goodrich

Agatha has fallen in love - again. This time it's the local gardener, George Marston. But when George goes missing, Agatha goes looking for him - and finds he has been murdered, having been bitten by a poisonous snake and buried in a compost heap!  Book 23 of series.

The King of England has ordered his Mistress of the Art of Death, Adelia Aguilar, to accompany 10-year-old Princess Joanna on her journey to marry the King of Sicily. But one traveller has been watching Adelia all too closely. He wants Adelia dead ...but he wants her to suffer first.

Abandoned by her father and left in the care of an uncle she has never met, eight-year-old Dorothea Ryan finds herself cast away in a big, strange house in the middle of the countryside. No one seems to want her. Her one wish is to return to her old home in London.

But as time passes and hopes of ever going back start to fade, Dorothea becomes more and more enmeshed in her new life at Clifton Park. She begins to wonder just where home really is...

President Tyler Forrester was undeniably one of the more popular modern US leaders. On the eve of his funeral, his living quarters are burgled by an assailant who blows himself up and a man who contacted Tyler before his death is found dead. It falls to his widow, Elizabeth, to discover the truth.

Pippi Longstocking is nine years old and lives all by herself with a horse, a monkey, a suitcase full of gold, and no grown-ups to tell her what to do. In these three stories, Pippi performs at the circus, is reunited with her long-lost father, and takes her friends Tommy and Annika on a trip to the Canny Canny Islands. Everything's fun with Pippi around!

The dramatic tale of that most intriguing of Renaissance women, Lucrezia Borgia. Incest, poison and betrayal are the three wedding presents in store for the Borgia bride.

Katherine, a suburban girl, is introduced to bohemian, academic life when she meets the eccentric Goldman family. She falls for their odious son Roger - despite his parents' warnings - and sure enough, first love quickly leads to heartbreak and sends her fleeing to Rome. Then ten years later, she returns to find love where she least expected it.

After the death of her mother, London photographer Joy receives an unexpected inheritance: a huge sum of money, her grandfather's diary and a unique brass artefact from the ancient kingdom of Benin. Joy's search for the origins of the artifact takes us on a journey through time, and uncovers some dark family secrets.

Alexander and Hervi de Montroi, half-brothers with no inheritance, meet in France. Hervi is a professional jouster and Alexander, fleeing the beatings of an English monastery, needs a trade. Despite misgivings, Hervi takes him on as his squire, introducing him to the travellers' immoral lifestyle. He befriends a girl, Monday, taking care of her after her parents die until, pregnant with Alexander's child, she leaves, finding shelter in a castle as a seamstress. Noticed by King John, she becomes his mistress in England, bearing his son and gaining a house. Meanwhile, Stefan has returned to England too, in the pay of an Earl - they meet again at court and, now older, fall in love. They have the King's blessing, but Monday's grandfather, now heirless, sees her as a way to gain power. She escapes his kidnapping to be reunited with Alexander on the land granted to him by the Earl.

When Chloë Cadwallader’s beloved godmother Jocelyn dies, she leaves her a letter instructing her to give up her job (rubbish) and her boyfriend (ditto) to travel the four countries of the United Kingdom during the four seasons of the year. And as the seasons unfold, so too does Chloë’s journey. From Abergavenny to St Ives, from the Giant’s Causeway to the shores of Loch Lomond, join her as she discovers love, lust, life – and, just possibly, a man for all seasons.

After giving his heart last year only to have it given away the very next day, Jake Knightley is opting out of Christmas! But then a beautiful new arrival upsets all his carefully laid plans. Emma Danes will do anything to help make the clock house a success, even working closely with the tempting Mr Knightley. Now, as snow starts to fall and romance starts to bloom, Emma and Jake may just find themselves repeating Whispers Wood history beneath the mistletoe...

Thea Osborne and her spaniel Hepzibah embark on another house-sitting commission with very few worries. The Phillips are obviously a laid back family and she arrives at idyllic Frampton Mansell with renewed enthusiasm. But she soon finds herself in the centre of the action when an apparent suicide takes place in one of the barns.

London, 1887. Veronica Speedwell intends to embark upon the journey of a lifetime. Then Veronica thwarts her own abduction with the help of an enigmatic German baron, and he offers her sanctuary in the care of his friend Stoker. But the Baron is murdered, and Veronica and Stoker are forced to go on the run from an elusive assailant.

Daisy's chum, the Honourable Phillip Petrie, is totally smitten with Miss Gloria Arbuckle, daughter of a millionaire Yank. But before the enthusiastic suitor can pop the question, his beloved is abducted by kidnappers. As a distraught Mr Arbuckle begins assembling the ransom, Phillip enlists Daisy to help him recover his missing sweetheart.

Lured by the promise of a rare and elusive butterfly, the intrepid Veronica Speedwell is persuaded by Lord Templeton-Vane, to pose as his fiancée at a house party on a Cornish isle owned by his friend, Malcolm Romilly. But upon arriving, spectral figures, ghostly music, and mysterious threats begin to plague the partygoers, and it becomes clear that there are numerous mysteries surrounding the Romilly estate.

While setting up housekeeping in London, newlyweds Lady Julia and Nicholas Brisbane agree to help Julia's brother expose the exclusive Ghost Club, a dark place where reputations and trust are destroyed, but find their own relationship in danger when their investigation makes the headlines.

After eight months in the Mediterranean, Lady Julia Grey and her husband are ready to put their investigative talents to work once more. At the urging of Julia's family, they hurry to India to aid an old friend, the newly widowed Jane Cavendish. Jane is consumed with discovering the truth about her husband's death. Was he murdered for his estate? And if he was, could Jane and her unborn child be next?

Hillmaston School has chosen The Mikado for their next school performance and, in recognition of her generous offer to finance the production, their meek and self-effacing arithmetic mistress is offered a key role. But when she disappears mid-way through the opening night performance and is later found dead, unconventional psychoanalyst and sleuth Mrs Bradley is called in to investigate. To her surprise she soon discovers that the hapless teacher had quite a number of enemies - all with a motive for murder...

AD 848.Bernwyn of Lythe, the young daughter of an ealdorman, spurns marriage and chooses to remain a virgin dedicated to Christ. When she is found murdered in the chapel where she kept her nightly vigils, it is thought that she has fallen victim to the Viking raiders who are ravaging the country and the butterflies found resting on her body are taken to be a sign from God.

But what if Bernwyn was not all she seemed? Could the saintly deeds attributed to her have been carried out by someone else and the people have set up a shrine to a false virgin?

Throughout the ages, St Bernwyn comes to be regarded as the patron saint of those suffering from skin diseases, and many are drawn on pilgrimage to her shrines. But from a priory in Wales to the Greek island of Sifnos, it seems that anywhere that St Bernwyn is venerated, bitter rivalry breaks out. So when a famous poet is inspired to tell the story of the saint, perhaps it is little wonder that he finds himself writing a satirical piece on the credulity of man.

It’s said that behind every great man is a woman, and what man is greater than the king? For centuries, royal aunts, cousins, sisters and mothers have watched history unfold from the shadows, their battlefields the bedchamber or the birthing room, their often short lives remembered only through the lens of others. But for those who want to hear them, great stories are still there to be told: the medieval princess who was kidnapped by pirates; the duchess found guilty of procuring love potions; the queen who was imprisoned in a castle for decades.

Bringing thirty of these royal women out of the shadows, along with the footnotes of their families, this collection of bite-sized biographies will tell forgotten tales and shine much needed light into the darkened corners of women’s history - and reminds us that British history is more than just a chain of Edwards and Henrys and Georges.

In the hushed aftermath of a total eclipse, Laura witnesses a brutal attack. She and her boyfriend Kit call the police and while Laura knows she was right to speak out, she also knows that you can never see the whole picture, something is always hidden... something she never could have guessed.

This source book offers a comprehensive treatment of solitary religious lives in England in the late Middle Ages. It covers both enclosed recluses (anchorites) and free-wandering hermits, and explores the relationship between them. Although there has been a recent surge of interest in the solitary vocations, especially anchorites, this has focused almost exclusively on a small number of examples. The field is in need of reinvigoration, and this book provides it. Featuring translated extracts from a wide range of Latin, Middle English and Old French sources, as well as a scholarly introduction and commentary from one of the foremost experts in the field, Hermits and anchorites in England is an invaluable resource for students and lecturers alike.

It is January 1957 and Helen's husband Jack returns from National Service. Happy to be reunited, they resume their life together. But Helen is shattered when Jack tells her that a brief fling with a sergeant's widow has left the woman pregnant, forcing her to make a courageous decision...  Book 3 of series.

Summer 1881: the streets of Limehouse are thick with opium... and menace. At eighteen Kitty Peck is determined to do things differently to her fearsome grandmother, and she now realises that the past casts a long and treacherous shadow. Haunted by a terrible secret and stalked by a criminal cabal intent on humiliation and destruction, Kitty must fight for the future of everyone she cares for... Book 3 of the 'Kitty Peck Mysteries'.

When young poet, Dora Fielding, moves to the small Scottish town of Helensburgh with her new husband, she doesn't realise how lonely it will be at home alone with a baby; or how cold her neighbours will be. But then she finds a message in a bottle on the beach, with a phone number. She calls the number, and what happens next is a breathtaking connection that rejoices in the power of imagination.

Jane Grey was Queen of England for nine days. She was put on the throne ahead of the king’s half-sister Mary, who quickly claimed her crown and locked Jane in the Tower. When Jane refused to betray her Protestant faith, Mary sent her to the executioner’s block. There Jane turned her father’s greedy, failed grab for power into her own brave and tragic martyrdom.

As they set off on the road to fame and fortune, the Avery sisters join a cast of extraordinary and unforgettable characters. Taking us behind the curtain and into their lives, the sisters reveal how the art of vaudeville – in all its variety, madness, melodrama, hilarity and sorrow – echoes the art of life itself.

The Amazing Arden is the most notorious female illusionist of her day, renowned for sawing a man in half. One night, with policeman Virgil Holt in the audience, she swaps her saw for a fire ax. A new trick or an all-too-real murder? When a dead body is discovered, the answer seems clear. But under Holt's interrogation, what Arden's story reveals is both unbelievable and spellbinding

At fifteen, Mavreen falls in love with the Vicomte Gerard de Valle. But believing him lost to her she enters a loveless marriage arranged by her father. When her husband dies Mavreen goes in search of the man she loves across the snowy battlefields of Russia.  Book 1 of series.

Owned by the National Trust and managed by English Heritage, Mount Grace Priory in North Yorkshire, established in 1398 and suppressed in 1539, was one of only nine successful Carthusian monasteries in England and one of the best-preserved medieval houses of that order in Europe. First excavated by Sir William St John Hope in 1896-1900 and in state guardianship since 1955 it is acknowledged as a type site for late-medieval Carthusian monasteries.

The modern study of Mount Grace began in 1957 when Hope's interpretation of the monks' cells about the great cloister was found to be simplistic. This was followed between 1968 and 1974 by the excavation of individual monks' cells in the west range of the great cloister and two cells in the north range, together with their gardens, areas not excavated by Hope. The examination of the monks' cells was completed in 1985 by the excavation of the central cell of the north cloister range, together with its garden and the cloister alley outside the cell. The cultural material recovered from these cells indicated the 'trade' each monk practiced, predominantly the copying and binding of books. Because each cell was enclosed by high walls, the pottery and metalwork recovered could be identified to an individual monk.

In 1987 English Heritage commissioned the re-excavation of two areas that had been examined by Hope, the water tower in the great cloister and the prior's cell, refectory and kitchen in the south cloister range and the guest house in the west range of the inner court. The contrast between this semi-public area of the monastery and the monks' cells was dramatic. Coupled with this excavation was a reappraisal of the architectural development of the monastery and reconstruction of lost structures such as the cloister alley walls and the central water tower.

Autumn 1888. London is being terrorized by a notorious and elusive serial killer, Jack the Ripper. Veronica Speedwell and her colleague Stoker are asked by Lady Wellingtonia Beauclerk to go undercover at Madame Aurore's high-class brothel, where a body soon turns up. Secrets are swirling around Veronica and the royal family—and it is up to Veronica to find the truth, before it is too late for all of them.

The Marquis of Amberley is forced to take shelter at Oakleigh Manor when his coach is waylaid by highwaymen. It is the home of beautiful Rosalind Vernon who lives alone but for her devoted servants, cut off from the outside world by the tragic result of a childhood accident. On his return to London, the Marquis persuades Rosalind's brother, Philip, to bring her to town for a taste of society. But Amberley is haunted by a dark and terrible secret that, if revealed, may cause him to lose Rosalind forever.

Anthony and Carole are hoping a week in a lovely Greek hotel will help them mend the cracks in their marriage. However when the flight doesn’t go according to plan, they are each forced to face up to the very things they have been avoiding for so long. Quick Reads.

Victorian adventuress and butterfly hunter, Veronica Speedwell, receives an impossible task - saving society art patron Miles Ramsforth from execution. He stands accused of the brutal murder of his mistress Artemisia, but together with her natural historian colleague Stoker, Veronica races against time to find the true murderer...

It is 1735. When her mother dies penniless, Sarah Mortonby unexpectedly inherits a run-down estate from the grandfather she never met. Unable to manage the land alone, and desperately needing help, she finds her life changing after meeting estate manager Will Pursley. Can they save the estate together? And will the fondness growing between Will and Sarah turn into love?

Spain, 1936 and the brink of civil war. Aged twelve, Sira Quiroga was apprenticed to a Madrid dressmaker. As she masters the seamstress's art, her life seems to be clearly mapped out - until she falls passionately in love and flees with her seductive lover. She is drawn into the shadowy world of espionage, rife with love, intrigue and betrayal. And that's where the greatest danger lies. . .