Sheri Cobb South has 19 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 4 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4★ across 11 ratings. The most-rated is In Milady's Chamber.
In Milady's Chamber
Summary
Estranged from her husband through her failure to produce an heir, Lady Fieldhurst resolves to repay his neglect by taking a lover. Fate takes a hand when she and her would-be lover enter her bedchamber to find Lord Fieldhurst lying on the floor - with her nail scissors protruding from his neck. Bow Street Runner John Pickett, 24 years old and new to the Bow Street force, has spent most of his brief career chasing petty thieves and pickpockets. Nothing in his experience has prepared him for low dealings in high society - or for the beautiful young widow who is the chief suspect.
©2016 Sheri Cobb South (P)2016 Sheri Cobb South
The Weaver Takes a Wife
Summary
Haughty Lady Helen Radney is one of London's most beautiful women, and the daughter of a duke, but her sharp tongue has frightened away most of her suitors. When her father gambles away his fortune, the duke's only chance for recouping his losses lies in marrying off Lady Helen to any man wealthy enough to take a bride with nothing to recommend her but a lovely face and an 800-year-old pedigree. Enter Mr. Ethan Brundy: once an illegitimate workhouse orphan, now owner of a Lancashire textile mill and one of England's richest men. When he glimpses Lady Helen at Covent Garden Theatre, he is instantly smitten and vows to marry her. But this commonest of commoners will have his work cut out for him if he hopes to win the heart of his aristocratic bride.
©2014 Sheri Cobb South (P)2015 Sheri Cobb South
For Deader or Worse
Summary
After a modest wedding ceremony, Bow Street Runner John Pickett and his bride, Julia, the former Lady Fieldhurst, set out for a wedding trip to Somersetshire, where Pickett must face his greatest challenge yet: meeting his in-laws. Sir Thaddeus and Lady Runyon are shocked at their daughter’s hasty remarriage - and appalled by her choice of a second husband. Pickett, for his part, is surprised to learn that Julia once had an elder sister: Claudia, Lady Buckleigh, disappeared 13 years earlier, leaving no trace beyond a blood-soaked shawl. When Sir Thaddeus confides that his wife is convinced Claudia’s spirit now haunts her childhood home, Pickett sees a chance to redeem himself in the eyes of Julia’s family. He agrees to investigate and, hopefully, lay the Runyon "ghost", whoever - or whatever - it is. Matters take a grisly turn when Sir Thaddeus' groom is discovered with his throat slit. The timing could hardly be worse, for the whole village is aflutter with the news that Lord Buckleigh has brought home a new bride just when Major James Pennington, the vicar’s son who was Claudia’s childhood sweetheart, has returned on leave from war in the Peninsula. The major was apparently the last person to see Claudia alive, and Pickett is convinced he knows more about her disappearance than he’s telling. Suddenly, it seems the distant past is not so distant, after all. It may not even be past....
©2017 Sheri Cobb South (P)2018 Sheri Cobb South
Waiting Game: Another John Pickett Novella
Summary
Bow Street Runner John Pickett and Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, seem to have reached an impasse as they wait for the annulment of their accidental marriage to come before the ecclesiastical court. In the meantime, Pickett is summoned to investigate the theft of almost 200 pounds from a linen-draper's shop - but finds no sign that either the shop or the safe where the money was kept had been forced open. Given the lack of evidence, he can only assume the money was taken by someone inside. With a host of suspects and a hostile hound named Brutus impeding his progress, Pickett must resort to the tricks of his former trade in order to catch a thief in the act.
©2016 Sheri Cobb South (P)2017 Sheri Cobb South
A Dead Bore
Summary
Eager to escape London following the scandal of her husband's death, Lady Fieldhurst accepts an invitation to spend the summer in rural Yorkshire as the guest of Sir Gerald and Lady Hollingshead. She soon discovers, however, that country life is not the panacea she had hoped for. Tension reigns and tempers flare at Hollingshead Place, due in large part to Lady Hollingshead's ambitions for her daughter, a lovely young lady destined for a brilliant marriage in spite of her love for a penniless curate. When a dinner party ends with the death of the vicar - a kindly old soul whose only sin appears to be the authorship of a dull local history - Lady Fieldhurst suspects foul play and sends for Bow Street Runner John Pickett, with one stipulation: since she is a guest in the house, Picket must keep his connection to Bow Street a secret. Pickett obliges by presenting himself as her footman, complete with livery and powdered hair. But Pickett soon has his white-gloved hands full sifting through old secrets, uncovering hidden passions, and dealing with a demanding housekeeper - not to mention avoiding the younger daughter of the house, a precocious 14-year-old with a school girl infatuation for the faux footman. Then there is the problem of Lady Fieldhurst herself, at once an able assistant and an all too pleasant distraction.
©2008 Sheri Cobb South (P)2017 Sheri Cobb South
Mystery Loves Company
Summary
Returning to London after his honeymoon (For Deader or Worse), Bow Street Runner John Pickett soon discovers wedded bliss is not without its pitfalls, as he finds it galling to be financially dependent on Julia, his aristocratic bride. When he is summoned to the home of Lady Washbourn, Pickett finds he has something in common with the young countess: like himself, Lady Washbourn has married above her station and now finds herself adrift in a world to which she does not truly belong. After a series of unsettling incidents - dismissed as accidents by Lord Washbourn and his mother, the dowager countess - Lady Washbourn fears her husband is trying to kill her. The couple will be hosting a masquerade ball, and the countess fears the anonymity of masks and costumes may afford Lord Washbourn an opportunity to make another, bolder attempt on her life. Tricked out in fancy dress for the occasion, Pickett feels more than a little foolish, but when one of the housemaids dies shortly after stealing a sip of Lady Washbourn’s ratafia, he realizes her ladyship’s fears were not unfounded. Then the coroner’s jury returns a verdict of death by natural causes, and Lord Washbourn makes it clear that he considers the matter settled. Pickett stakes his professional reputation on proving the maid was murdered with a poison intended for her mistress. And with a reward of fifty pounds sterling riding on his successful resolution of the case, the marriage Pickett saves just might be his own.
©2018 Sheri Cobb South (P)2018 Sheri Cobb South
Dinner Most Deadly
Summary
When Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, returns from Scotland restless and out of sorts, her friend Emily Dunnington plans a select dinner party with half a dozen male guests from whom Julia may choose a lover. But Emily's dinner ends in disaster when one of her guests, Sir Reginald Montague, is shot dead. When Bow Street Runner John Pickett is summoned to Emily's house, he is faced with the awkward task of informing Lady Fieldhurst that their recent masquerade as a married couple (Family Plot) has resulted in their being legally wed. Beset by distractions - including the humiliating annulment procedure 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.
©2015 Sheri Cobb South (P)2017 Sheri Cobb South
Peril by Post
Summary
The eighth book in the series finds John Pickett bound for England's scenic Lake District, where an unsigned letter has summoned him for an unspecified reason. Pickett and his wife Julia, the former Lady Fieldhurst, take a room at the Hart and Hound as the letter instructs him. Once installed there, however, Pickett can do nothing but wait for the anonymous contact to identify himself. A midnight search of the inn's register seems to identify the innkeeper, Ned Hawkins, as his man, but before Pickett can discover the reason for his summons, Hawkins is pushed from a cliff - surviving the fall only long enough to call Pickett's attention to the letter in his pocket.
With his contact dead and his only clue a letter containing nothing more than a rambling account of family news, Pickett knows he's on his own. But that isn't the worst of his problems: Julia saw the crime being committed, and although she can't identify the murderer, there is every indication that the killer knows he was seen - and intends to eliminate any possible witnesses.
Amidst a quirky cast of characters including a host of holiday-makers, a bucolic love triangle, an aspiring poet in the Romantic vein, and an old friend of his magistrate, Mr. Colquhoun, Pickett must discover the secret behind that urgent summons before a second, and far more personal, murder is committed.
©2018 Sheri Cobb South (P)2018 Sheri Cobb South
Too Hot to Handel
Summary
When a rash of jewel thefts strikes London, magistrate Patrick Colquhoun deploys his Bow Street Runners to put a stop to the crimes. The Russian Princess Olga Fyodorovna is to attend a production of Handel’s Esther at Drury Lane Theatre, where she will wear a magnificent diamond necklace. The entire Bow Street force will be stationed at various locations around the theatre - including John Pickett, who will occupy a box directly across from the princess. In order to preserve his incognito, Pickett must appear to be a private gentleman attending the theatre. Mr. Colquhoun recommends that he have a female companion - a lady, in fact, who might prevent him from making any glaring faux pas. But the only lady of Pickett’s acquaintance is Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, to whom he accidentally contracted a Scottish irregular marriage several months earlier, and with whom he is seeking an annulment against his own inclinations - and for whom he recklessly declared his love, secure in the belief he would never see her again. The inevitable awkwardness of their reunion is forgotten when the theatre catches fire. In the confusion, the Russian diamonds are stolen, and Pickett is struck in the head and rendered unconscious. Suddenly it is up to Julia not only to nurse him back to health, but to discover his attacker and bring the culprit - and the jewel thief - to justice.
©2016 Sheri Cobb South (P)2018 Sheri Cobb South
Family Plot
Summary
The third installment of the John Pickett series of humorous Regency mysteries finds Bow Street Runner Pickett in Scotland investigating a woman found unconscious on the beach - a woman who bears a striking resemblance to the local laird's daughter, a girl missing and presumed dead for the last 15 years. Pickett is surprised to discover that the woman was found by none other than Lady Fieldhurst and her three young nephews - and gratified to learn that her ladyship has registered at the seaside inn as Mrs. Julia Pickett. When old Angus Kirkbride dies only hours after announcing his intention of changing his will in his daughter's favor, "Mr. and Mrs. Pickett" must join forces to discover the truth about a family reunion suddenly turned deadly.
©2014 Sheri Cobb South (P)2017 Sheri Cobb South
French Leave
Summary
Forced by bankruptcy and scandal into exile in France, Lord Waverly expects never to return to his homeland until, staggering home from a gaming hell in the wee hours of the morning, he encounters a young novice escaping from a convent. When she asks him to take her to England, promising him that her English grandfather will reward him handsomely for her safe conveyance, Waverly reluctantly agrees. Alas, Waverly soon realizes the enormity of his task. When he delivers the irrepressible Lisette to her grandfather's home only to discover that the old man is dead, Waverly is left with no alternative but to offer her the protection of his name. And when he is unexpectedly reunited with the woman whose marriage precipitated his flight to France, Waverly begins to discover that his marriage of convenience is likely to prove very inconvenient indeed....
©2001, 2003, 2011 Sheri Cobb South (P)2018 Sheri Cobb South
Of Paupers and Peers
Summary
Overworked and underpaid curate James Weatherly is resigned to a life of genteel poverty, never suspecting he is heir to a dukedom until a solicitor appears on his doorstep. Alas, on the way to claim his inheritance, James is set upon by ruffians whose handiwork deprives him of his memory. Margaret Darrington is no stranger to genteel poverty herself, since the death of her father has left her in charge of her two younger siblings and feather-brained aunt. But Margaret has a plan: To salvage the family's finances, she has only to put her beautiful younger sister, Amanda, in the way of marrying a wealthy man - perhaps the new Duke of Montford, who is expected to arrive any day. When Margaret finds a beaten and bloodied young man in the road, his shabby attire and collection of secondhand books lead her to mistake him for the tutor she has hired for her younger brother. Still reeling from the attack upon his person, James is relieved to have the mystery of his identity so easily "solved" and accompanies her home. As James' bruises fade, Margaret discovers that he is, if not classically handsome, undeniably pleasing to look upon, with an appealingly self-deprecating wit. Suddenly Amanda's brilliant marriage is in jeopardy, for how can any impressionable female resist such a paragon? But nothing about the penniless pedagogue is quite as it seems, and Margaret would do well to forget about her sister's prospects and look to her own heart instead...
©2006, 2013 Sheri Cobb South (P)2018 Sheri Cobb South
Pickpocket's Apprentice
Summary
When magistrate Patrick Colquhoun orders a habitual thief and ne'er-do-well transported to Botany Bay, he doesn't realize a 14-year-old boy has been left behind to follow in his father's footsteps - not until young John Pickett is hauled into Bow Street for stealing an apple from the produce market at Covent Garden. Feeling to some extent responsible for the boy, Mr. Colquhoun prevails upon Elias Granger, a prosperous coal merchant, to take him on as an apprentice. For the next five years, John Pickett hauls coal in exchange for room and board. The work is dirty and hard, but the drudgery is lightened by the occasional deliveries to Bow Street, where Mr. Colquhoun usually tosses Pickett a coin for his pains. An even more pleasant diversion exists in the form of Mr. Granger's pert daughter Sophy, with whom Pickett tumbles headlong into love. And then one day 19-year-old John Pickett stumbles by accident into a criminal investigation that will bring him once again to the attention of Bow Street for an entirely different reason, and will change the course of his life.
©2015 Sheri Cobb South (P)2016 Sheri Cobb South
Miss Darby's Duenna
Summary
A lady in distress...a gentleman in a dress? Amiable but clueless young baronet Sir Harry Hawthorne thought he was making a marriage of convenience to a childhood friend...until his fiancée catches the eye of the dashing and dangerous Lord Mannerly. Suddenly, Sir Harry’s jealousy is roused to the point that he assumes the identity of his reclusive grandmother in order to keep the all-too-grown-up Miss Olivia Darby under his watchful eye. But the course of true love never did run smooth, and among the obstacles Sir Harry must face are a love-struck younger sister, an elderly widower with an amorous interest in the faux “Lady Hawthorne”, and a rival more ruthless than the hapless Sir Harry ever imagined.
©1999 Sheri Cobb South (P)2019 Sheri Cobb South
Into Thin Eire (Another John Pickett Mystery)
Summary
Now you see her.... Still haunted by memories of his last case, in which an innocent woman was accidentally killed, Bow Street Runner John Pickett welcomes the challenge of a new assignment in the West Country. Unfortunately, this time he’ll have to leave his beloved wife, Julia, behind, as he’ll be traveling in company with Harry Carson, a member of the Foot Patrol whose swaggering self-confidence is an uneasy fit with Pickett’s reserve. Now you don't.... After three days of trying without success to make contact with the man who sent for him, Pickett receives word from Bow Street that Julia has been abducted. Suddenly his current case takes on much more ominous implications. And if the man behind it all is the one Pickett fears it is, then Julia is in mortal danger....
©2019 Sheri Cobb South (P)2019 Sheri Cobb South
The Desperate Duke
Summary
A duke in disguise...a damsel in distress...a match made in - Manchester?
When 23-year-old Theodore Radney becomes the Duke of Reddington after his father dies, the weight of his new responsibilities is enough to send him into a panic. Theo soon accumulates a pile of debts - and discovers he can’t touch his inheritance until his father’s will is probated. His brother-in-law, mill owner Ethan Brundy, lends him the money, with one caveat: Theo will repay the loan by working in the mill.
Daphne Drinkard and her mother have fallen on hard times, and are now reduced to taking in boarders. When a Parliamentary candidate hires the dining room for a series of political meetings, Daphne knows he might be her last chance for an advantageous marriage. Still, she’s far more intrigued by the boardinghouse’s newest resident. Mr. Tisdale is obviously a gentleman - but why would a gentleman be working in a cotton mill?
©2018 Sheri Cobb South (P)2019 Sheri Cobb South
Brighton Honeymoon
Summary
Sir Aubrey Tabor began with the most altruistic of motives. When the Brundys' seaside wedding trip is interrupted by a young woman claiming to be Mr. Brundy's sister, Sir Aubrey promises to do what he can in order to relieve his friend of an imposter whose presence poses a threat to marital bliss. But golden-haired Polly proves to be more than a match for Sir Aubrey, and with each encounter, he finds himself thinking less of his friend's honeymoon, and more about having one of his own.
©2000, 2002, 2011 Sheri Cobb South (P)2017 Sheri Cobb South
Brother, Can You Spare a Crime?
Summary
When one of his colleagues witnesses a robbery in which one of the participants, a child, bears a striking resemblance to a certain Bow Street Runner, John Pickett realizes he has a young half-brother who has been “apprenticed” to a criminal gang. The brutal murder of the pursuing constable makes the crime far more serious than a simple robbery would be - and 10-year-old Kit is linked to the crime by the toy soldier he dropped while fleeing the scene. In spite of his tender years, he will certainly hang unless Pickett can extricate him before fellow Bow Street Runner Maxwell solves the case. For the first time in his career, Pickett is obliged to work against one of his fellows, dogging Maxwell’s steps and trying to anticipate his next move in order to get to the boy first. Pickett’s investigation will take him back to the rookeries of London, where his own childhood was spent. But can he return to his old haunts without being pulled back into his old way of life?
©2020 Sheri Cobb South (P)2020 Sheri Cobb South
Nowhere Man
Summary
Having resigned his position at Bow Street, John Pickett waits in vain for someone - anyone! - to engage his services as a private inquiry agent. As weeks go by with no responses to his newspaper advertisement, he has taken to spending his days wandering idly about London rather than admit his failure to his wife. One day, while loitering in the Covent Garden market, he wonders morosely if it might have been better had he not been born at all. Then he sees one of his former colleagues and, in an attempt to make a discreet exit, manages instead to knock himself unconscious. He awakens to discover that his Bow Street colleague doesn’t seem to remember him, and after staggering back home to Curzon Street, he finds someone else living in the house where he lived with Julia. But still greater surprises are in store for Pickett as he attempts to navigate his way through a world in which he never existed....
©2020 Sheri Cobb South (P)2020 Sheri Cobb South