Nan and Virginia St. George have the great good luck to be born beautiful and wealthy - the two qualities prized above all others in 1870s New York - but the insurmountably bad luck to come from "new money." Shunned by the snobbish guardians of Manhattan society, the lively girls still attract many admirers, but no offers of marriage from eligible men - the grail pursued discreetly but with single-minded intensity by all young women of polite birth...

"In the lean years following World War I, brash American adventuress Beryl Helliwell and prim and proper Brit Edwina Davenport form a private inquiry agency to make ends meet, hoping that crime does indeed pay... The latest occurrence to disturb the peace in the quaint English village of Walmsley Parva hits rather too close to home--in fact, the prime suspect has taken up residence in Edwina's potting shed. Her elderly gardener Simpkins has been secretly...

"[A] heiress with the goal of being a wallflower engages a rugged American in a scorchingly sensual, witty wager that tests whether clothing does indeed make the man -- or the wallflower! Miss Cleopatra Lewis is about to be launched in society by her aristocratic grandfather. But since she has no intention of marrying, she visits a costume emporium specifically to order unflattering dresses guaranteed to put off any prospective suitors. Powerful and...

Venturing to a sprawling mansion in Cornwall--led by the ghost of Aunt Dimity--Emma Porter puts aside her broken heart to restore a once glorious chapel garden, where she overhears rumors about the near-death of a beautiful family cousin.

Beryl Helliwell cited for 'reckless' motoring? Why, the very idea! Constable Gibbs just has it in for her. The solution? Charm the magistrate, of course. Beryl and Edwina pay a visit to the magistrate only to find his home ransacked and the man himself lying dead at the bottom of a grand staircase. Declan O'Shea, who assists Beryl's aged gardener Simpkins, falls under suspicion after having had his own run-in with the magistrate - mostly, Beryl believes,...

"It's almost Christmas in the small English village of Finch--and everyone is sick. Though many of the villagers regretfully decline their invitations to Emma and Derek Harris's annual Christmas bash, Lori Shepherd has no intention of missing it. When the winter weather takes a turn for the worse, it's agreed that none of the guests will leave until morning. There's general merriment as the Christmas party becomes a pajama party--until a car appears...