Lily Somerset's plan for the London season is simple: courtship, marriage to a respectable gentleman, then the comfortable existence of a proper Lady. That is, until one tiny misstep leaves Lily on the edge of social ruin, forcing her to depend on a wicked rogue to save her reputation. Robyn Sutherland doesn't save reputations-he sullies them. He'd rather be drawn and quartered than find himself spending the season as Lily's escort. But he has no choice but to stay until her tattered standing is mended. What begins as a ruse to deceive London soon flames into an uncontrollable passion. Robyn calls to the wild spirit that lurks beneath Lily's prim exterior, and Lily awakens the hero's heart within Robyn. But can these unlikely lovers trust themselves enough to let desire overrule reason?

England, 1811. Delia Somerset despises the privileged ton, but her young sister, Lily, is desperate to escape their family's scandalous past and join high society. Unwilling to upset her sister, Delia reluctantly agrees to attend a party at the Sutherland estate-and avoid the gossip at all costs. Alec Sutherland is known as a hot-headed scoundrel, but nothing gets a rise out of him as much as the news that his brother desires Delia's hand in marriage. She is, after all, the daughter of the London belle who soiled their family name. He's determined to ruin her reputation as well, in the most delicious way possible. It's only a matter of time before he can woo her with his irresistible advances. As Delia devilishly plays along in Alec's game, determined to prove the joke is on him, they inch ever closer to repeating history. And in this game of seductive glances, scandalous whispers, and old debts, the outcome might be much more than either of them anticipated...

Ros Green, owner of a second hand shop is furious when Bert Blackaby -- small trader -- fails to show up at the Bootsale with her laptop but when he is found murdered and she is picked up by the police, she knows she must act quickly. For some reason known only to himself Bert had named her as joint beneficiary in his will, and she discovers that he owns a valuable house packed with antiques and she sets out to discover more about him.
Her partner Detective Sergeant Jack Russell is sent on other duties and is not able to help as much as he would like. She finds he came out of a POW camp with four friends and she visits them all -- an Older Citizens club in Wales, a beautiful house in Chelsea (where the wife of a member of parliament denounces all knowledge of Bert and refutes all claims to his property), and to an aging pop star who tells her Bert was a brilliant electronics man, and finally to a millionaire author.
The mystery leads her back to the river estuary and a post war murder, to stories of smuggling and a final confrontation with some very eminent members of local society and her own near death. She is saved by Jack but only after some highly revealing confessions. As usual her path is crossed by innumerable characters -- Meg (Pegrug) McNally, Karen and Pearl two girls from school with dreadlocks, Helen Dixon, single parent, Joe Maxwell, and the very proper Heather Browne -- tortured by a secret from her past.

It is the duty of all local authorities under section 46 of the Public Health Act to dispose of the bodies of anyone destitute with no known relatives. This is normally an easy if sad task, but when Ros Green, a slap-happy temporary junior, is given the job of arranging the funeral of Cyril Porter, The Laurels, Brickfield Terraces, she immediately connects him with the book Diary of a Nobody. It is enough to intrigue her and she begins to make further enquiries to find out more about the man. Back at work she is told to 'get a move on and get the burial over' . Stubbornly, and with the help of her partner Detective Sergeant Jack Russell she persists with her enquiries until she reaches back into wartime days - then the attempts to stop her become more serious. She has sewerage dumped on her garden, her brake cables are cut and finally a shot is fired but she is undaunted, and her efforts are rewarded when she discovers the man's true identity and, in doing so, also uncovers a wartime scandal which will now threaten the lives of many prominent people in the town.