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Deryn Lake
Deryn Lake is the pseudonym of a well-known historical novelist who joined the popular ranks of historical detective writers with her gripping John Rawlings Mysteries. Deryn lives near Hastings, East Sussex | |||
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Deryn Lake's titles | ISBNs | ||
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1-903552-00-1 1-903552-13-3 1-903552-14-1 1-903552-37-0 1-903552-38-9 1-903552-39-7 | |||
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Death at The Beggar’s Opera to top John Rawlings, the apothecary with a talent for detective work, and John Fielding, the phenomenal blind magistrate whose Runners formed London’s early police force, make a welcome return in this evocative Georgian mystery. John Rawlings is among the beau monde enjoying a performance of ‘The Beggar’s Opera’ in Drury Lane when the leading actor the notorious philanderer Jasper Harcross dramatically falls to his death on stage. As Rawlings and the Blind Beak hunt for vital clues, they discover a hotbed of rivalry both on and off the stage which produces numerous suspects and questions. As the search takes on a new intensity, John Rawlings soon finds himself on an intriguing trail of obsession that leads to the dark heart of a cold-blooded murder. |  | ||
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Death at the Devil’s Tavern to top John Rawlings, the exuberant young apothecary, is celebrating in The Devil’s Tavern, a popular if notorious haunt for sailors and smugglers. Stumbling across a corpse that has been fished out of the Thames, he identifies it as Sir William Hartfield, the bridegroom who had failed to show at his own wedding earlier that day. As the drowning reveals itself as murder, Rawlings is called upon by London’s revered sightless magistrate, John Fielding, to investigate the colourful members of Sir William’s family from terrible old Lady Hodkin to her downtrodden daughter, and from Roger, flamboyant man of fashion, to the outrageous twins who share an elaborate past. |  | ||
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Death on the Romney Marsh to top Summoned to attend a patient in a house near the lonely Romney Marsh, Rawlings does not suspect that he is walking into a web of conspiracy, intrigue and mystery. Until he discovers a body near a deserted church, bearing a coded document. Rawlings reports the case to London’s famous blind magistrate John Fielding who identifies the victim as a French spy master. So Rawlings returns to the marshes to investigate who, amongst the colourful local characters, could be harbouring politically explosive secrets. |  | ||
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Death in the Dark Walk to top Having just finished his indentures, Rawlings is celebrating at Vaux Hall Pleasure Gardens when he trips over the body of a young girl. Summoned to the magistrate’s office as prime suspect, Rawlings not only clears his own name but impresses Fielding so much with his powers of recollection that he is asked to investigate the crime. From gaming hell to fashionable house, Rawlings follows a trail of lustful liaisons and illicit intrigue which prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the girl has quite a past...a past filled with threatening secrets. |  | ||
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Death in the Peerless Pool to top John Rawlings, London’s most colourful apothecary and occasional sleuth, is relaxing at the popular swimming baths, the Peerless Pool, when his peace is shattered by the alarming discovery of a drowned woman. The victim is identified as Hannah Rankin, an assistant at the nearby St Luke’s asylum for the insane. Assigned to the case by John Fielding, London’s famous blind magistrate, Rawlings fails to realise that he is scratching the surface of something far more complex than an isolated murder. At St Luke’s, Rawlings discovers a vital clue to Hannah’s hidden past which leads to a strange case concerning a child’s mysterious disappearance. Was Hannah involved? And why do his investigations lead him again and again to a house of sinister secrets in Bath? |  | ||
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Death at Apothecaries’ Hall to top The scene was an exact replica of the one that had taken place twenty-four hours earlier. John Rawlings stood in the shop at Apothecaries’ Hall buying the herb known as true-love. The only difference was that both he and the shop owner were buzzing with intrigue as they discussed the extraordinary outbreak of food poisoning which had stricken the liverymen who attended dinner at the Worshipful Society the previous day. And how Liveryman Alleyn might have died had John not given him the remedy of true-love. But the following day Liveryman Alleyn does die. Under the brief guidance of London’s famous blind magistrate, John Fielding, Rawlings is asked to investigate whether it is a deliberate case of poisoning. But who would want to poison the apothecaries? And were they targeting the Society or specifically the deceased? As John searches for gossip, he discovers that a fellow apothecary visited the dying man’s house on the morning of his death, that the Beadle had fallen out with the Master, and that a bereaved parent whose son died as a result of misdiagnosis had vowed vengeance on hte entire Society. John Rawlings, London’s effervescent 18th Century apothecary and occasional sleuth, tackles his most intriguing case to date. | |||
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