Dinner Most Deadly (Another John Pickett Mystery)

When Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, returns from her sojourn in Scotland restless and
out of sorts, her friend Emily, Lady Dunnington, decides what Julia needs is a
lover. Lady Dunnington plans a dinner party with carefully selected male guests
from whom Julia may choose a paramour. Emily also invites a potential lover for
herself: Sir Reginald Montague, a man whose urbane manner and dangerous good
looks hide a host of unsavory secrets. Alas, Emily’s little dinner is a disaster
from the outset. Every gentleman at the table bears some unspoken grudge against
Sir Reginald, and then dinner is interrupted by Emily’s estranged husband. He
and Emily have a heated discussion that ends with Lord Dunnington’s vowing to
put a stop to his wife’s pursuit of Sir Reginald “no matter what it takes.” But
the coup de grâce comes at the end of the evening, when Sir Reginald is shot
dead. Bow Street Runner John Pickett is summoned to Emily’s house, where he is
taken aback to find Julia. For in addition to investigating the case, he is
faced with the awkward task of informing her that their masquerade as a married
couple in Scotland has resulted in their being legally wed. Beset by
distractions—not least the humiliating annulment process and the flattering
attentions of Lady Dunnington’s pretty young housemaid— Pickett must find the
killer of a man whom everyone has reason to want dead.