Michael Underwood

A very complex mystery develops in London's clubland and among the legal grandees who frequent the Old Bailey and the Inns of Court. For the Blackstone Club, with its fine collection of snuff boxes, is a legal preserve. And when the entire valuable collection is stolen, one young club servant knows exactly how it was done. But when a vicious murder follows, and suspicion falls upon him, he is unable to extricate himself from his predicament by telling the truth ...

In the fourth Rosa Epton mystery, Underwood's protagonist, whom Mystery Magazine declared 'one of mystery fiction's most talented attorneys', is called upon to defend the scapegrace younger brother of an acquaintance. Then the acquaintance himself is murdered, his skull crushed with a statuette of the Indian goddess Lakshmi, and Rosa must divide her time between manipulating a magistrate smitten with her charms and divining the culprit's identity.

The appointment of a new Chief Prosecuting Solicitor has caused outrage and gossip, but no one could have imagined that murder would ensue. Nor that an arrogant and stubborn policeman would make a premature arrest and then set about gathering the evidence to substantiate his arrest. Then a second murder throws the case into even more confusion. Meanwhile, Rosa Epton has appeared on the scene to defend the accused, and she is soon locked in battle with the police and increasingly determined to get to the truth.

A prominent judge is murdered on the opening day of the new Runnymede Crown Court, and Rosa Epton become doubly involved, both as a witness to the murder and the solicitor in a drugs trial over which Judge Ambrose was to have presided. His replacement, Judge Holtby, seems unduly upset by the death of his colleague - and then two more deaths occur. But was Judge Ambrose the real target in the first place? And what involvement does Rosa's client in the drugs case have in the whole business? Eventually Rosa is able to deduce the likely sequence of events, but there is still a final secret to be revealed ...

It is extremely bad luck for Sarah Atkins that she is very slightly over the limit when she knocks down and kills a man in a patch of fog. It is even worse luck that the man is Jonathan Cool, a well-known pop star. There are three witnesses: Cool's girlfriend, Sarah's husband and Sarah, whose fate will turn on their testimony. But as the evidence unfolds, it begins to appear that this may not have been a run-of-the-mill accident, and it is down to her solicitor, Rosa Epton, to unravel the truth.

Deepwood Grange is no longer what it was in the thirties: the beautiful old house has been converted into luxury apartments, and the original family is long gone. But on a rare visit to her godmother, solicitor Rosa Epton finds herself quite entertained by the eccentric residents of the other flats. Until, that is, one of them turns up dead in the chimney of an empty apartment, and her godmother becomes a prime suspect. Then her godmother disappears, and Rosa's involvement becomes even more personal ...

Vernon Gray is the oldest and richest of the residents of the four flats on the sixth floor of a block in his small seaside town. After seeing her on TV, he has instructed Rosa Epton to draft his last will and testament, when another of her clients demands her attention on an urgent matter: he has been accused of stealing five pounds from the collection plate at the end of the Sunday morning service. And then Vernon Gray disappears, along with his housekeeper, leaving a welter of puzzling clues to confuse the police, and the learned Rosa.

No one knew what finally prompted a shy young schoolboy to walk out of Warren Hall School never to return. The discovery of some of Stephen Willett's bloodstained clothing in an overgrown ditch throws suspicion on Wally Price, a local odd-job man, and his suicide is seen as an admission of guilt. Over fifty years later another tragedy strikes Warren Hall when the body of a stranger is discovered in the school grounds. The local postmaster is charged with murder and solicitor Rosa Epton is summoned from London to advise him on his defence. Then a second murder at the school - and the discovery of some damning evidence against her client - makes Rosa determined to investigate leads that the police have overlooked. So she embarks on the most challenging assignment of her career: one that involves long-held secrets and dangerous confrontations. For a killer stands between Rosa and the truth.

When Evelyn Henshaw comes to Rosa Epton's office demanding that in the event of her disappearance her husband be investigated for murder, Rosa is more than a little doubtful. Hesitant to take the woman on as a client, she is drawn in when Mr Henshaw subsequently arrives at her office claiming that his wife has disappeared. And when the young lodger living in the couple's home turns up dead, Rosa must unearth the skeletons of the couple's troubled marriage and fit together the pieces of a complicated puzzle.