Offering ';a vibrant picture of the roles Black and mixed-race people played in Regency life' (Publishers Weekly), this unique historical mystery series, featuring a mixed-race heroine with a notorious past, will appeal to Bridgerton fans who want a sharper edge to their drama. A marriage of convenience saved Lady Abigail Worthing's family from disgrace, but she's finding her absent husbands endless conditions increasingly repressive. Unable to stay at their London home during the oncoming winter, she accepts a ride to the country from her neighbor, Stapleton Henderson. However, shes less than delighted that she's his excuse to avoid a dinner held by Lord Charles Duncan, one of Londons most powerfuland relentlessmagistrates. More irritating, women are decidedly unwelcome at the evening's prestigious discussion of criminalityeven though Abigail and Stapleton have solved several cases together . . . Then an unexpected blizzard strands them at Lord Duncan's with his now-houseguests. Suddenly, an evening of fine dining, fine brandy, and insightful debate becomes an inescapableand deadlyordeal. The ultimate test for Abigial's skill. One of the dinner guests is found dead in front of the Berkley Square mansion. And when another party is murdered, Abigail discovers each had received a taunting, prophetic nursery rhyme . . . coincidence, or clues left by a killer on the loose? Through deft interrogation, she learns everyone present is connected to Lord Duncans greatest failure in the courts: the conviction of a Martinique plantation informant for a murder he didn't commit. But as Abigail races to find who was really responsible for the miscarriage of justice, shell be forced to put her own and Stapletons lives at risk in a gambit that will alter their fates foreveror end them permanently.
