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 ten-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 Robert 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...

Having resigned his position at Bow Street in disgrace (at least in his own mind) and failed in his attempt to establish himself as a private agent, John Pickett toils away at a tedious job as a clerk in the City. When he is approached by a man wishing to hire him to extract a young lady being held against her will at an asylum for opium-eaters, Pickett jumps at the chance to prove himself, and persuades a very reluctant Julia to commit him to the institution as a patient. But nothing at the Larches is exactly as it seems, and while getting in may be easy, getting out may be another matter entirely...

With a beautiful and clever wife, a growing investigative business, and a baby due any day, former Bow Street Runner John Pickett finally has a respectable life far removed from his beginnings as a juvenile pickpocket in the rookeries of St. Giles. Then his father returns from transportation to Botany Bay, and Pickett's hard-won respectability threatens to collapse like a house of cards. When a person from his mother's shadowy past surfaces, followed less than twenty-four hours later by the discovery of "Gentleman" Jack Pickett's body in a back alley in Limehouse, Pickett finds himself juggling the dual obligations of settling his father's tangled affairs, and discovering the identity of the man—or woman—who decided to settle Gentleman Jack permanently.

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 . . .

Be careful what you wish for... 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 beloved wife Julia, the former Lady Fieldhurst. One day, while loitering amidst the crowds thronging 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, contrives 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...

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?

Romance/Historical Fiction. 47118 words long.

John Pickett discovers wedded bliss is not without its pitfalls, as he finds it galling to be financially dependent on Julia. Summoned to the home of Lady Washbourn, Pickett finds they have something in common: like himself, she has married above her station. Now she believes her husband is trying to kill her, and when a maid dies during a ball, she may be right. 7th John Pickett mystery by Sheri Cobb South; originally published by the author and Belgrave House/Regency Reads

John Pickett and his bride Julia depart London for a wedding trip to Somersetshire, where Pickett faces his greatest challenge yet: meeting his in-laws. Sir Thaddeus and Lady Runyon are unimpressed with their new son-in-law, but the squire asks for his help nevertheless. Lady Runyon believes the house is haunted by the ghost of her elder daughter Claudia, who disappeared thirteen years earlier and whose body was never found. When Sir Thaddeus's groom is discovered dead, Pickett asks the Justice of the Peace (who happens to be Claudia's widower) for permission to investigate. When Claudia's childhood sweetheart takes a hand, it appears the distant past is not so distant, after all. It may not even be past ... 6th John Pickett mystery by Sheri Cobb South; originally published as an ebook by Belgrave House/Regency Reads "Winning." —Publishers Weekly

When magistrate Patrick Colquhoun orders a habitual thief transported to Botany Bay, he doesn't realize a fourteen-year-old boy has been left behind—not until young John Pickett is hauled into Bow Street for stealing an apple. Colquhoun arranges a job for John hauling coal, where John promptly falls in love with pert Sophy. At nineteen Pickett stumbles into a criminal investigation which will change the course of his life. Regency Mystery Novella by Sheri Cobb South; originally published by the author and Belgrave House/Regency Reads

John Pickett and Lady Fieldhurst have reached an impasse as they wait for the annulment of their accidental marriage to come before the ecclesiastical court. Meanwhile, Pickett is summoned to investigate a theft at a linen-draper's shop. Suspecting an inside job—and with a hostile hound named Brutus impeding his progress—Pickett must resort to the tricks of his former trade in order to catch a thief. Regency Mystery Novella by Sheri Cobb South; originally published by the author and Belgrave House/Regency Reads

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 fifteen 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.

When Julia, Lady Fieldhurst, returns from her sojourn in Scotland restless and out of sorts, her friend Emily, Lady Dunnington, decides what Julia needs is a lover. Lady Dunnington plans a dinner party with carefully selected male guests from whom Julia may choose a paramour. Emily also invites a potential lover for herself: Sir Reginald Montague, a man whose urbane manner and dangerous good looks hide a host of unsavory secrets. Alas, Emily's little dinner is a disaster from the outset. Every gentleman at the table bears some unspoken grudge against Sir Reginald, and then dinner is interrupted by Emily's estranged husband. He and Emily have a heated discussion that ends with Lord Dunnington's vowing to put a stop to his wife's pursuit of Sir Reginald "no matter what it takes." But the coup de grâce comes at the end of the evening, when Sir Reginald is shot dead. Bow Street Runner John Pickett is summoned to Emily's house, where he is taken aback to find Julia. For in addition...

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, infact, 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...

When Richard, Lord Ramsay offers marriage sight unseen to a distant American cousin, he thinks the match will provide a home for the orphaned heiress as well as give the Ramsays extensive holdings on two continents. Then red-haired Susannah arrives from the Kentucky frontier, and her transformation into a lady is the least of the surprises in store for her stuffy English relations. Regency Romance by Sheri Cobb South; originally published ebook by Belgrave House/Regency Reads