David Roberts

Lord Edward Corinth is invited by his friend Joe Weaver, the press lord and close friend of the British royal family, to recover certain letters stolen from the king's intimate friend Wallis Simpson. There is no mystery about who has taken these letters -- a woman called Mrs Raymond Harkness, a former mistress of the king and a close friend of Edward's. When Edward goes down to Haling, the country house of conservative MP Leo Scannon where Mrs Harkness...

But MI5 learns that an enemy agent has been dispatched to assassinate Churchill. Lord Edward Corinth must identify the killer and his first port of call is Cliveden, the Astors' country house, the focus for those who are prepared to go to any lengths to avert war. Verity Browne is also with the Astors, though she despises the so-called Cliveden Set. Communist Party bosses have told her to get close to another guest, Joseph Kennedy, the American Ambassador,...

One of his guests is General Sir Alistair Craig VC, who swallows poison in the duke's excellent port and dies just as latecomer Lord Edward Corinth and journalist Verity Browne arrive on the scene. The unlikely pair -- the younger son of a duke and a journalist committed to the Communist Party find common ground as they seek for the truth behind the genera's murder and discover that everyone present -- including the duke himself -- had a motive for...

As the congregation begins to disperse after the service, Edward hears Miss Pitt-Messanger cry for help. Her father is slumped in his seat, stabbed to death with an ancient Assyrian dagger.Edward has no wish to investigate the murder but Verity gets herself invited to Swifts Hill, the ultra-modern house in Kent belonging to the millionaire Sir Simon Castlewood. His wife, Virginia, is one of Verity's school friends and she is looking after Maud Pitt-Messanger...

Lord Benyon is on the Queen Mary, bound for New York. It is 1937, and his mission is to persuade President Roosevelt to supply Britain with arms and money if it comes to war with Germany. Those who want him to fail will not stop at murder to achieve their aim. But, when Benyon refuses police protection, Special Branch asks Lord Edward Corinth to keep an unofficial eye on him. However, it is not Benyon who is murdered but a racist senator from South...