The scoundrels deadly de.., p.24
The Scoundrel’s Deadly Deed, page 24
Buy The Tart’s Final Noel
Gravesyde Priory Mystery
The Secrets of Wycliffe Manor
Book #1
Be wary of what you wish for. . .
In Regency England:
The descendant of adventuring—dead—aristocrats, Clarissa Knightley supplements a modest inheritance by penning gothic novels that cost more than they earn. Upon learning that she has mysteriously inherited a share of an earl’s estate, she rashly packs up her household. In remote Gravesyde Priory, she hopes to find a safe haven and family who will welcome her and her young nephew.
Instead, she discovers a drunken American army captain, his African servant, and ancient, surly caretakers. Terrified, prepared to flee, Clare is lured to linger by the prospect of secret diaries, hidden jewels, and an increasingly intriguing man. Then a killer strikes.
The crumbling manor’s ominous and baffling history offers fascinating fodder for Clare’s horror novels—if only she can survive real-life madmen and a spectral murderer who may seek the jewels at any price.
Buy The Secrets of Wycliffe Manor
The Mystery of the Missing Heiress
Book #2
Wycliffe Manor, a magnet for murder...
On a long-delayed errand to remote Wycliffe Manor, ex-Lieutenant Jack de Sackville stumbles across the murdered body of London dandy, Basil Culpepper, in the hedgerow, a long way from his usual haunts. To Jack’s dismay, he discovers the earl’s daughter Culpepper ruined hiding in Wycliffe’s kitchen.
Disguised as a lowly cook, Lady Elspeth Villiers may have liked to shoot Culpepper for ruining her life, but she dropped out of sight for more immediate reasons than an old scandal—her wealth has become the focus of greedy men. The arrival of Jack, the man she’s adored since childhood, along with Culpepper’s corpse, mean her hiding place is no longer safe.
But once Lady Elsa reveals herself to the unconventional inhabitants of Wycliffe Manor, they become the protective family she has never known. Outraged to learn the beautiful woman he once loved and lost has become a target of greed, Jack joins the investigation into Culpepper’s death.
With a murderer on the loose, the amateur sleuths must unravel a deadly tangle of kidnappers and counterfeiters or the Manor’s eccentric inhabitants will be in as much danger as their cook.
Buy The Mystery of the Missing Heiress
The Bones in the Orchard
Book #3
At Gravesyde Priory, each new arrival is either a blessing—or a threat. . .
Wycliffe Manor has been neglected for decades. Its new heirs are determined to create a welcoming home. Yet soon after the latest family moves into the nearby parsonage, bones are uncovered in the orchard. . . and odd strangers arrive.
When her curate father returns his family to Gravesyde for the marriages of the manor’s heirs, gawky spinster Patience Upton has high expectations—until her father is murdered. Shock at learning her father had a mysterious past, leads to alarm that the killer may have been after his notebook, which she now possesses.
After the chapel is ransacked and a witness killed, it’s clear the murderer isn’t done. Desperate to find the truth, Patience accepts the aid of Henri Lavigne, Wycliffe Manor’s smooth-talking rake. Intent on saving his new home and family from danger, Henri is drawn to the clergyman’s guileless daughter but wonders if she hasn’t reason to conceal the killer’s identity.
Before there will be any courting, much less marrying, the inhabitants of the manor realize if they want a chance at a future, they must hunt the killer themselves. But are they hunting one murderer. . . or more?
Buy The Bones in the Orchard
The Question of the Wedding Pearls
Book #4
Will death ruin the perfect wedding?
* * *
Bestselling author Patricia Rice brings you another haunting country house mystery in Regency England. . .
Spinster and secret novelist Clarissa Knightley and her gruff American engineer, Captain Huntley, along with their friend and cousin, the Honorable Jack de Sackville and Lady Elspeth, are to wed at last! In anticipation of the double wedding, friends and family are gathering at moldering Wycliffe Manor—until a dying stranger is discovered on the neglected grounds.
Despite the tragedy, aristocratic wedding guests, and their retinues, foreign and domestic, continue to arrive, not all by invitation. Compounding the bedlam, tales of missing pearls and ghostly encounters precede a second alarming death. Fearing that a killer lurks inside the manor walls, Clare and Hunt are swept up in a whirlwind of secret bigotries, deceit, and increasing peril. Before their family’s joyful plans veer into heartbreak, can they put an end to mayhem and catch a killer?
Buy The Question of the Wedding Pearls
The Case of the Purloined Pages
Book #5
Death stalks the library. . .Bestselling author Patricia Rice brings you another haunting country house mystery in Regency England. . .
Minerva Peniston, intrepid spinster and booklover, is determined to capture the villain who tried to shoot a duke at a book auction— imperiling her father’s position and the only home she’s ever known. And now the same wealthy bibliophiles are gathering at Wycliffe Manor. . .
Paul Upton, over-educated and impoverished curate, has volunteered to assist the residents of Wycliffe Manor in preparing for a book auction to save the village and the manor’s future. When an intriguing wallflower drags him into aiding her quest to find a potential killer, he agrees for her safety, and to keep trouble from upending the long-awaited nuptials of the manor’s owner.
Despite their efforts, Minerva’s chatty book-collecting friend is strangled before the auction begins. A killer on the loose threatens to upend both sale and wedding. Paul and Minerva must determine what secrets the garrulous victim revealed. . . and to whom. . . before the murderer strikes again.
With valuable manuscripts at risk and a half dozen more potential victims on hand, only an unlikely white-knight and mousy spinster can save the auction and the wedding. As much as Minerva adores books, even she knows they aren’t worth dying for.
Buy The Case of the Purloined Pages
The Dilemma of a Dead Scholar
Book #6
At Wycliffe Manor, a legendary pirate treasure draws danger... .Bestselling author Patricia Rice brings you another haunting country house mystery in Regency England. . .
An heiress haunted by ghosts, Dotty Dorothea knows her family believes her mad. Fearing fortune hunters who would lock her and her awkward little brother in an asylum, she flees behind the ancient walls of Wycliffe Manor.
A French artist and émigré, his soul bearing scars from a French prison, Comte Arnaud Lavigne has lost everything to war. His only foreseeable future is restoring bad artwork in his cousin’s decrepit manor. Mad heiresses aren’t his concern, until the day a mathematical scholar is murdered. The deceased leaves a coded journal that might lead to Wycliffe Manor’s lost treasure—inside the sealed tower the terrified heiress swears is haunted.
Ghosts don’t exist as far as Arnaud is concerned, but killers and thieves are real, especially when stolen treasure is involved. How is he to work with the dotty heiress when neither of them trusts the other—or themselves? But the inhabitants of Wycliffe Manor, young and old, are in peril unless a heartless killer and thief is caught. . .
Buy The Dilemma of a Dead Scholar
The Scoundrel’s Deadly Deed
Copyright © 2024 Patricia Rice
Cover design © 2024 Killion Group
First digital edition Book View Café Date
ebook: 978-1-63632-313-8
Trade: 978-1-63632-314-5
* * *
All rights reserved. No part or the whole of this book may be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, or utilized (other than for reading by the intended reader) in any form without the prior written permissions of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. The unauthorized reproduction of this copyrighted work is illegal, and punishable by law.
This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Book View Café
304 S. Jones Blvd. Suite #2906
Las Vegas NV 89107
About the Author
With several million books in print and New York Times and USA Today's bestseller lists under her belt, former CPA Patricia Rice is one of romance's hottest authors. Her emotionally-charged contemporary and historical romances have won numerous awards, including the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards. Her books have been honored as Romance Writers of America RITA® finalists in the historical, regency and contemporary categories.
A firm believer in happily-ever-after, Patricia Rice is married to her high school sweetheart and has two children. A native of Kentucky and New York, a past resident of North Carolina and Missouri, she currently resides in Southern California, and now does accounting only for herself.
For further information, visit Patricia’s Network
Also by Patricia Rice
The World of Magic:
The Unexpected Magic Series
Magic in the Stars
Whisper of Magic
Theory of Magic
Aura of Magic
Chemistry of Magic
No Perfect Magic
The Magical Malcolms Series
Merely Magic
Must Be Magic
The Trouble With Magic
This Magic Moment
Much Ado About Magic
Magic Man
The Magic Malcolms Boxset
The California Malcolms Series
The Lure of Song and Magic
Trouble with Air and Magic
The Risk of Love and Magic
Crystal Magic
Sapphire Nights
Topaz Dreams
Crystal Vision
Wedding Gems
Azure Secrets
Amber Affairs
Moonstone Shadows
The Wedding Gift
The Wedding Question
The Wedding Surprise
School of Magic
Lessons in Enchantment
A Bewitching Governess
An Illusion of Love
The Librarian’s Spell
Entrancing the Earl
Captivating the Countess
Psychic Solutions
The Indigo Solution
The Golden Plan
The Crystal Key
The Rainbow Recipe
The Aura Answer
The Prism Effect
Historical Romance:
American Dream Series
Moon Dreams
Rebel Dreams
The Rebellious Sons
Wicked Wyckerly
Devilish Montague
Notorious Atherton
Formidable Lord Quentin
The Regency Nobles Series
The Genuine Article
The Marquess
English Heiress
Irish Duchess
Regency Love and Laughter Series
Crossed in Love
Mad Maria’s Daughter
Artful Deceptions
All a Woman Wants
Rogues & Desperadoes Series
Lord Rogue
Moonlight and Memories
Shelter from the Storm
Wayward Angel
Denim and Lace
Cheyennes Lady
Dark Lords and Dangerous Ladies Series
Love Forever After
Silver Enchantress
Devil’s Lady
Dash of Enchantment
Indigo Moon
Too Hard to Handle
Texas Lily
Texas Rose
Texas Tiger
Texas Moon
Mystic Isle Series
Mystic Isle
Mystic Guardian
Mystic Rider
Mystic Warrior
Mysteries:
Family Genius Series
Evil Genius
Undercover Genius
Cyber Genius
Twin Genius
Twisted Genius
Tales of Love and Mystery
Blue Clouds
Garden of Dreams
Nobody’s Angel
Volcano
California Girl
Historical Mysteries
Graneside Priory Series
The Secrets of Wycliffe Manor
The Mystery of the Missing Heiress
The Bones in the Orchard
The Question of the Wedding Pearls
The Case of the Purloined Pages
The Dilemma of a Dead Scholar
Graneside Village Mysteries
The Villain’s Fatal Plot
The Scoundrel’s Deadly Deed
The Tart’s Final Noel
Urban Fantasies
Writing as Jamie Quaid
Saturn’s Daughters
Boyfriend From Hell
Damn Him to Hell
Giving Him Hell
About Book View Café
Book View Café LLC (BVC) is an author-owned cooperative of professional writers, publishing in a variety of genres including fantasy, romance, mystery, and science fiction — with 90% of the proceeds going to the authors. Since its debut in 2008, BVC has gained a reputation for producing high-quality ebooks. BVC’s ebooks are DRM-free and are distributed around the world. The cooperative is now bringing that same quality to its print editions.
BVC authors include New York Times and USA Today bestsellers as well as winners and nominees of many prestigious awards.
Patricia Rice, The Scoundrel’s Deadly Deed
