DUPLICATE DEATH

Cosy Crime: Gentle Mysteries Detective & Mystery Stories

By Georgette Heyer

Synopsis

Inspector Hemingway has his work cut out for him when a seemingly civilized card game ends in a double murder. The two crimes appear identical, but were they carried out by the same hand? When Timothy Harte's young fiance - a put-upon secretary and suspected gold digger - becomes the inspector's prime suspect, Harte is determined to prove her innocence. But when he starts digging into her past, he finds it's more than a little bit shady...

Sample Player

Narrator	Matt Addis
Length	8hrs 30mins
Catalogue No.	16440
Publisher	Cornerstone Digital; 2021

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ARABELLA

Arabella, the daughter of an impoverished country parson, dreams of a new life in London. But her beauty and charm will only get her so far - and when Arabella embarks on her first London season armed with nothing but a benevolent godmother and her own notoriously short temper, she quickly runs afoul of Robert Beaumaris. He's the most eligible bachelor of the day, with a personality as strong and combative as hers - and Arabella cannot abide him thinking of her as just another pretty girl after his wealth. So she allows herself to be provoked into a game of deception - one that could have unexpected consequences...

BATH TANGLE

The Earl of Spenborough had always been noted for his eccentricity. Leaving a widow younger than his own daughter was one thing ... leaving his fortune to the trusteeship of the Marquis of Rotherham, the one man that same daughter had jilted, was quite another!

BEAUVALLET

Witty, elegant, stylish and the best comedies of manners since Jane Austen. '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 Dona Dominica de Rada y Sylva, he vows to return her and her father to the shores of Spain. But he has no sooner done so than 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...

BEHOLD, HERE'S POISON

When Gregory Matthews, patriarch of the Poplars is found dead one morning, imperious Aunt Harriet blames it on the roast duck he ate for supper. After all, she had warned him about his blood pressure. But a post-mortem determines that the cause of death is much more sinister. Murder. By poison. Suspicion falls immediately amongst his bitter, quarrelsome family. Each has a motive; each, opportunity. It falls to Superintendent Hannasyde to sift through all the secrets and lies and discover just who killed Gregory Matthews, before the killer strikes again...

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BLACK SHEEP

Abigail Wendover tries to stop the liaison between her niece and a fortune hunter, Stacy Calverleigh. The arrival of Stacy's uncle in Bath further complicates Abby's life.

A BLUNT INSTRUMENT

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.

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COTILLION

Kitty Charing will inherit a vast fortune from her great -uncle Matthew, if she marries one of her cousins. Her preferred choice is Jack Westruther who has no inclination to marry. So Kitty and another cousin devise a plan, designed to make Jack madly jealous!

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A moonlit night. A sleeping village. And an unaccountable murder... An English bobbie returning from night patrol finds a corpse in evening dress locked in the stocks on the village green. He identifies the body immediately. Andrew Vereker was not a well-loved man, and narrowing down the suspects is not going to be an easy job. The Vereker family are corrupt and eccentric -and hardly cooperative ... It's another case for the resourceful Superintendent Hannasyde, who sets off on the trail of a killer so cunning that even his consummate powers of detection are tested to their limits...

DETECTION UNLIMITED

Slumped on a seat under an oak tree is old Sampson Warrenby, with a bullet through his brain. He is discovered by his anxious niece, Mavis, who is just one of the the people in the village in the running for chief suspect, having just cause to dislike Warrenby intensely. Only Chief Inspector Hemingway can uncover which of the ten has turned hatred into murder.

DEVIL'S CUB

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ENVIOUS CASCA

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.

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FARO'S DAUGHTER

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Even as a fourteen-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.

SNOWDRIFT AND OTHER STORIES

Romance, intrigue, escapades and duels at dawn. All the gallantry, villainy and elegance of the age that Georgette Heyer has so triumphantly made her own are exquisitely revived in these wonderfully romantic stories of the Regency period.

SYLVESTER

Arrogant Sylvester, Duke of Salford, seeks a wife who is worthy of him. However, unbeknown to him, the lady of his choice has written a scandalous novel featuring him as the villain.

THE TALISMAN RING

Lord Lavenham wants to provide for his grand-daughter, Eustacie, but his heir, Ludovic, is a fugitive from justice. It is his dying wish that Eustacie should marry Sir Tristram Shield, but neither party has the inclination to marry.

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The legend of the Headless Horseman and a proposed marriage de convenance both have their impact on the mystery of a golden talisman ring and Lord Lavenham's young heir, Ludovic. Neither Sir Tristram Shield nor Eustacie, his young French cousin, share the slightest inclination to marry one another, yet it is Lord Lavenham's dying wish. For there is no one else to provide for the old man's granddaughter while Ludovic remains a fugitive from justice ...

THESE OLD SHADES

Twenty years after being refused permission to marry the sister of Duc de Saint-Vivre, Justin Alastair is plotting revenge by using his new red-haired page, Leon. But is everything in the Paris of Louis XV as it seems?

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The sixtieth birthday party of Silas Kane was marred by argument and dissension amongst his family. And then, the morning after the celebrations, Kane is found dead at the foot of a cliff. The theory that Silas accidentally lost his way in the fog is confirmed when the coroner returns a verdict of death by misadventure. But then Kane's nephew and heir is murdered and threats are made on the next in line to the fortune, throwing a new and sinister light on Silas Kane's death. All clues point to an elderly lady of eighty as the killer. But as the redoubtable Superintendent Hannasyde delves further into the case he discovers that nothing is quite as it seems...

THE TOLL-GATE

Home after Waterloo, Captain John Staple finds peacetime life rather dull, until he finds himself lost in the Pennines where he discovers the adventure, and the romance of a lifetime.

THE UNFINISHED CLUE

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 fiancee, a cabaret dancer. Inspector Harding picks his way through a mass of familial discontent to find the culprit - and find much more besides.

THE UNKNOWN AJAX

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VENETIA

In all her twenty-five years, Venetia Lanyon has never been further than Harrogate. Nor has she enjoyed the attentions of any man aside from her two wearisomely persistent suitors. Then, in one extraordinary encounter, she meets a neighbour she only knew by reputation - the infamous Jasper Damerel. Before she realises it, Venetia is encouraging a man whose way of life has scandalised the North Riding for years.

WHY SHOOT A BUTLER?

It is a complete mystery why anyone would choose to murder the trusted old butler of Norton Manor. Barrister turned amateur detective, Frank Amberley, has reason to suspect that the shooting involves the nervy young lady discovered at the scene of the crime, a snooping gentleman in the halls of Greythorne and then a second dead body. A dramatic tale of upstairs, downstairs and family secrets.