Autumn clouds are drawing in over the village of Askham, at the edge of the picturesque Lake District, and mourners, including Simmy Henderson, are heading to the funeral of Humphrey Craig. Taking a quiet moment later to visit the grave and admire the flowers with her florist's eye, Simmy meets two women: academic Lindsay Wilson and ninety-year-old matriarch Pauline Parsons. Just twenty-four hours later, Mrs Parsons is found dead on Askham Fell, and Simmy faces questioning at Penrith police station. An accusation has been made, but if Simmy is to avoid arrest for a murder she did not commit, she will have to uncover the killer herself.

A wedding day turns into a far darker affair in the idyllic Lake District. On a glorious July morning in the pretty Lake District village of Threlkeld, Simmy Brown and Christopher Henderson celebrate their wedding day. While the event passes off without undue calamity, when most of the guests have departed a severely injured young man is found nearby. Pressure on police resources compromises the investigation and speculation is rife. Was it an accident or something more sinister? What was just a chilling suspicion develops into an altogether more disturbing theory.

Spring has brought many new beginnings into the world of florist Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown. Not only has her baby arrived, but she and her fiancé Christopher have moved to the historic village of Hartsop in the Lake District - and they still intend to say their vows before the height of summer. But when a former acquaintance of Christopher's reminds him of a promise he made a decade previously, their lives soon take a sinister - and deadly - turn. Yet even with a young baby to consider Simmy cannot ignore her instinct to investigate, especially with the personal link to her soon-to-be husband. Ably assisted by her would-be detective friend Ben, can Simmy puzzle out this reckoning from the past and protect her family in time for the wedding bells to chime?

Thea Osborne reconnects with her friend Emmy while on a visit to the church in Baunton, near Cirencester with her stepdaughter Stephanie. Emmy, now married to local farmer Nick Weaver, asks Thea to, help them find their missing niece, Ginny. But before Thea can get started, she stumbles upon the recently killed body of Alice, a woman they had briefly seen in Cirencester the day before. Stephanie concentrates on searching for Ginny via social media while Thea is diverted into helping the police with the murder investigation. It soon becomes clear that Ginny and Alice are linked in a sinister way.

'As Rebecca Tope tells it, every rural idyll is blighted by underlying menace. Such is her writing skill, I'm inclined to believe her 'Daily MailA handsome, if slightly shabby, stone house in Upper Oddington is home to Umberto Kingley as well as his three dogs and will be Thea Slocombe's latest house-sitting assignment. Without even a local shop, Thea expects the location to be one of her quietest, until the serene atmosphere is shattered with a fatal hit-and-run.The ensuing high-profile police investigation plunges Thea deep into the victim's complicated family dynamics and the rift that had already torn it apart. And she cannot help wondering if the reverberations of scandal have led to a deliberate and murderous assault.

Returning from a much-needed holiday, Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown discovers that life in the Lake District is, as ever, far from relaxing. Before she can enjoy the idea of being the future Mrs Chris Henderson, her fiancé discovers the body of his friend, antique dealer Jonathan Woolley, brutally strangled in a house in Grasmere. Enlisting the help of her friends and amateur detectives Ben and Bonnie, the investigation appears to ask more questions than it answers as historical grudges against the dead man are revealed. It seems that many people had a reason for wanting him dead. But with Chris's increasingly evasive and odd behaviour, Simmy begins to wonder if he is more involved in the murder than he is saying. How can she put her trust in a man with something to hide?