(Escapist and completely absorbing, The Villa in Italy is ...)
Escapist and completely absorbing, The Villa in Italy is the perfect, mouth-watering summer read. Four very different people are named in a will. All are summoned to the Villa Dante, home of the late Beatrice Malaspina. But who was she? While they wait to find out, the villa begins to work its seductive magic. With its faded frescoes and magnificent mediaeval tower, it’s unlike anywhere they have been before. Slowly, four characters who have gone to great lengths to hide their troubles find that change – and even hope – is possible after all. But the mysterious Beatrice has a devastating secret to reveal that will change everything . . . The perfect holiday read for fans of Rosanna Ley and Rachel Hore, The Villa in Italy is a beautiful evocation of Italy in the aftermath of World War Two.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RI9AUY/?tag=2022091-20
2009
(Two great houses. One dark secret. England, 1936 Estrange...)
Two great houses. One dark secret. England, 1936 Estranged from her family in the north, Londoner Alix Richardson dreams of Christmas at Wyncrag, her grandfather's great house above a lake that has frozen for the first time in fifteen years. But she returns to find the house–and her family–still caught in the icy grip of her iron-willed grandmother. As the Richardsons return to the winter wonderland of the frozen north, so too do others. Across the lake, at Grindley Hall, theatre director Hal Grindley comes home from New York with a secret of his own, to find his brothers all too anxious to relieve him of his share in the family business empire, while an enigmatic American film star adds a touch of mysterious glamour to the winter gathering. Against the glittering backdrop of winter parties and skating on the lake, both Alix and Hal have to face disturbing truths about their families, their pasts—and about the two black-shirted men from the south who have come to stay, bringing the long shadows of fascism to this remote corner of England. When one of the Blackshirts is found dead under the ice, the arrival of a Special Branch policeman gives urgency to Alix and Hal's inquiries and casts a sinister light on Lady Caroline's long reign at Wyncrag. But neither realises how dark their families' secrets are–or how a previous generation's tragedy has come back to haunt them... For fans of English sagas and the world of Downton Abbey, A Frozen Lake is an atmospheric, multi-layered story of great families, their eccentricities, and their secrets, set amid a the dramatic landscape of the English Lake District.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005O53TPE/?tag=2022091-20
2011
(December 1953 Hugo Hawksworth is on the tail of rogue Col...)
December 1953 Hugo Hawksworth is on the tail of rogue Cold War agents at a top-secret government facility, while back home at Selchester Castle they’re awaiting the arrival of the new Earl—an American, the long-lost son of the murdered Lord Selchester. The town of Selchester, rich in scandal and gossip, is unsure what to make of the Earl or his teenage daughters, but they know that his sharp-tongued half-sister, Lady Sonia, furious at being deprived of her inheritance, won’t be a merry guest over Christmas. The new Lord Selchester can cope with the strangeness of English country life, but he hadn’t expected stolen paintings—or a body in the hothouse. What’s the link between Hugo’s investigations and the suspicious goings-on in the town and at the Castle? And will he and his allies get to the heart of the mystery before the murderer gets to them? Revised edition: This edition of A Question of Inheritance includes editorial revisions.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00YDJKEBY/?tag=2022091-20
2015
(Truth is rarely pure and never simple… Selchester Cast...)
Truth is rarely pure and never simple… Selchester Castle in 1953 sits quiet and near-empty, its corridors echoing with glories of the past. Or so it seems to intelligence officer Hugo Hawksworth, wounded on a secret mission and now reluctantly assuming an altogether less perilous role at Selchester. The Castle’s faded grandeur hides a web of secrets and scandals—the Earl has been missing for seven years, lost without a trace since the night he left his guests and walked out into a blizzard. When a skeleton is uncovered beneath the flagstones of the Old Chapel, the police produce a suspect and declare the case closed. Hugo is not convinced. With the help of the spirited Freya Wryton, the Earl’s niece, he is drawn back into active service, and the ancient town of Selchester is dragged into the intrigues and conspiracies of the Cold War era. With a touch of Downton Abbey, a whisper of Agatha Christie and a nod to Le Carré, A Man of Some Repute is the first book in this delightfully classic and witty murder mystery series.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1477829342/?tag=2022091-20
2015
She has lived in India and Italy and now live in Oxford, where she went to university -- where she has taken up bell-ringing.
(December 1953 Hugo Hawksworth is on the tail of rogue Col...)
2015(Truth is rarely pure and never simple… Selchester Cast...)
2015(Escapist and completely absorbing, The Villa in Italy is ...)
2009(You can find more books here.)
(Two great houses. One dark secret. England, 1936 Estrange...)
2011Quotes from others about the person
A review posted by her reader said: "your books take you out of the daily world and make the impossible seem possible".
She is married to an art historian and has two children.