Showing results by author "Georgette Heyer" in All Categories

Brought to you by Penguin. Sparkling characterisation and inventive plots from one of the best known and beloved detective novelists of all time. Tragedy befalls the Carter family following an eventful visit from a Russian prince and a scandalous blackmail letter. The murder of Wally Carter...

Leonie Bonnard is being drawn into a 12-year-old feud. Justin Alastair, the duke of Avon, is a reprehensible rake with an axe to grind. Decades ago the Comte de Saint-Vire did something unforgivable, and ever since Justin has been lying in wait to settle the score. When Justin meets Leon, a street urchin with a striking resemblance to his nemesis, he aims to use him as a pawn in his plans for revenge on the Comte. Except Leon is in fact Leonie, a beautiful young ingénue who may just steal Justin's heart.

Annis Wychwood delights in her independence. Beautiful, rich and far too busy for love, she has turned down the advances of many a hopeful suitor. But when she becomes entangled in the affairs of a runaway heiress, she encounters the girl's guardian, the notorious Oliver Carleton. While Oliver may be a reckless and uncivil rogue, Annis can't help but be drawn towards his wild ways.

Shot-proof, fever-proof and a veteran campaigner at the age of 25, Brigade-Major Harry Smith is reputed to be the luckiest man in Lord Wellington's army. But at the siege of Badajos, his friends foretell the ruin of his career. For when Harry meets the defenceless Juana, a fiery passion consumes him. Under the banner of honour and with the selfsame ardour he so frequently displays in battle, he dives headlong into marriage. In his beautiful child-bride, he finds a kindred spirit and a temper to match. But for Juana, a long year of war must follow.... 

'Mad Nicholas' to his friends, 'Scourge of Spain' to the enemy, Sir Nicholas Beauvallet has never been known to resist a challenge. When a captured galleon yields the lovely Doña Dominica de Rada y Sylva, he vows to return her and her father to the shores of Spain. But he has no sooner said than done, so he proposes a venture more reckless than any of his exploits on the high seas which have made him Drake's equal and a favourite of the queen. He will take Dominica as his bride even if he must enter the lion's den.

In 1815, beneath the aegis of the Army of Occupation, Brussels is the gayest town in Europe. And the widow Lady Barbara Childe, renowned for being as outrageous as she is beautiful, is at the centre of all that is fashionable and light-hearted. When she meets Charles Audley, dashing aide-de-camp to the great Duke of Wellington himself, her joie de vivre knows no bounds - until the eve of the fateful Battle of Waterloo.... 

William the Bastard, base-born son of the Duke of Normandy, must fight the king of France to regain his Duchy. Spurned in love by the lovely Princess Matilda, the fighting duke dares to take a whip to her in her own father's palace, before making her his bride. Thwarted by the Saxon Earl Harold of a promise of the throne of England, William the Conqueror sails to Hastings to claim the king's crown and sceptre for his own.

Seven long years ago, Jack Carstares, the Earl of Wyncham, sacrificed his honour for his brother and has been in exile ever since. Returning to England, Jack pretends to be a gentleman named Sir Anthony Ferndale but makes his living in a most ungentlemanly fashion, as a highwayman and a gambler. 

It is no ordinary Christmas at Lexham Manor. Six holiday guests find themselves the suspects of a murder enquiry when the old Scrooge, Nathaniel Herriad, who owns the substantial estate, is found stabbed in the back. Whilst the delicate matter of inheritance could be the key to this crime, the real conundrum is how any of the suspects could have entered the locked room to commit this foul deed. For Inspector Hemingway of Scotland Yard, 'tis the season to find whodunit. 

The stabbing of irascible General Sir Arthur Billington-Smith fails to stir up grief in anyone - least of all his family, which is no wonder considering the way he had treated them all during the fateful weekend. He had disinherited his son, humiliated his wife, refused to help his financially stricken nephew and made no secret of his loathing for his son's fiancée, a cabaret dancer. Inspector Harding picks his way through a mass of familial discontent to find the culprit - and find much more besides.

The death of Adam Penhallow on the eve of his birthday seems, at first, to be by natural causes. He was elderly after all. But Penhallow wasn't well liked. He had ruled over his estate with an iron will and a sharp tongue. He had played one relative off against another. He was so bad tempered and mean that both his servants and his family hated him. It soon transpires that far from being a peaceful death, Penhallow was, in fact, murdered.

Based on a story she had written for her brother and published when she was 19 years old, The Black Moth is set during the Georgian era in the 1750s and follows Lord Jack Carstares, the eldest son of the Earl of Wyncham. Six years ago, Jack took the blame when his younger brother Richard cheated at cards. Jack consequently faced social exile and fled England for the European continent. He has now secretly returned, robbing carriages as a highwayman.

In an 18th-century England of wit, womanising and powdered wigs, provincial Philip Jettan runs the risk of irreproachability. Cleone Charteris stands in no such danger. The golden-haired, headstrong despair of men, she seeks a husband who can duel and dice with the best of them. So Philip leaves for Paris, where his father's hopes and his lover's ideals are realised, but with unforeseen consequences for them both.... A peerlessly successful and prolific romantic novelist, Georgette Heyer shows in Powder and Patch what won her a wide, devoted audience that continues to this day.

When Ernest Fletcher is found bludgeoned to death in his study, everyone is shocked and mystified: Ernest was well-liked and respected, so who would have a motive for killing him? Enter Superintendent Hannasyde, who, with consummate skill, begins to uncover the complexities of Fletcher's life. It seems the real Fletcher was far from the gentleman he pretended to be. There is, in fact, no shortage of people who wanted him dead. Then, a second murder is committed, with striking similarities to the first, giving a grotesque twist to a very unusual case.

John, Duke of Bedford, grew to manhood fighting for his father, King Henry IV of England, on the wild and lawless Northern Marches. A prince of the royal blood, loyal, strong, the greatest ally that his brother - the future Henry V - was to have. Filled with the clash of bitter rivalries and deadly power struggles, this is Georgette Heyer's last and most ambitious novel. 

An historical romance set in London and the English countryside with remarkable nuance and descriptions about dress, parties, houses, men and women and their dealings with each other, with special insights into marriage. A wonderful ode to our better selves and what we can be if we move beyond the bumps and bruises in life.

Even as a 14-year-old orphan, Simon Beauvallet knows his own mind. Later, friend and foe alike will know better than to cross the flaxen-haired mountain of a man whose exploits in battle have earned him knighthood, lands and gilded armour. After Agincourt, he has no equal save the king himself in generalship - until his legendary prowess is baulked by a woman. In Normandy, the icy rage of Simon the Coldheart must melt - or quench Lady Margaret, spitfire of Belremy. 

Hated for his cruel and vicious nature, ruling his family with an iron hand from his sickbed, tyrannical patriarch Adam Penhallow is found murdered the day before his birthday. His entire family had assembled for his birthday celebration, and every one of them had the ways and means to commit the crime. As accusations and suspicion turn in one direction and then another, the claws and backstabbing come out, and no one is exempt from the coming implosion.

In Black Moth, Jack Carstares, the eldest son of the Earl Wyncham, has faced disgrace at the hands of his brother. For six long years, he has lived as a notorious highwayman, but everything changes when he meets the captivating woman who will steal his heart. After heroically saving her from a vile kidnapper, Jack is injured and must stay with her family until he can regain his strength. But secrets abound—will she uncover his true identity? And when the time comes for him to leave, will he be able to walk away? With a delightful blend of mystery and humor, this tale unfolds with an ...

1816: Die 20-jährige Sophy Stanton-Lacy kommt in das Haus ihrer Tante in London. Die Verwandtschaft ist außer sich. Statt des erwarteten, sittsamen, schüchternen Mädchens ist Sophie eine selbstbewusste und vor Energie sprühende junge Frau, die sich nicht um die Gebräuche der höheren Gesellschaft schert. Sophy mischt sich in die (Liebes-)Angelegenheiten anderer Leute ein und treibt ihren attraktiven Cousin Charles langsam aber sicher in den Wahnsinn. Doch auch Sophy kann der Liebe nicht auf Dauer entkommen.