Incognito in Portugal...

Lord Petteril's cousin, the newly commissioned Major Bertie Withan, has gone missing somewhere between landing in Lisbon and joining his regiment on the front line of the Peninsular War.

Piers and April, disguised as a government clerk and his wife to deter undue interest from possible ransom-seekers, try to follow Bertie's last movements from British army headquarters to the fetid back streets of Lisbon. Inevitably they face hostility, danger and too many secrets, but are they already too late to save Bertie?

A murdered stranger in his home wood...

The discovery of a naked corpse upsets the new Viscount Petteril's return to his ancestral acres. The local magistrate, Robert Lindon, has no idea how to proceed with so heinous a crime. Neither has Petteril, but curiosity compels him to help – with the aid of his fearless new assistant April, struggling to find her feet in this rich new world, and yet invaluable to more than the investigation.

Identifying the corpse is difficult enough. Suspecting that the culprit is one of the local gentry, some of whom were Petteril's boyhood friends, is harder still. Could it be the aristocratic fortune hunter betrothed to Lindon's daughter? Or, as everyone would prefer, Brandy Bill, the highwayman still hiding out in the nearby town?

A missing family heirloom – and one of the family stole it.

In the spring of 1812, Piers Withan is dragged from his beloved Oxford to be the new Viscount Petteril. Burdened by responsibilities he doesn't want and the remnants of a family who don't want him, he is saved from an irredeemable mistake by Ape, the small thief burgling his house.

When the family heirloom known as the Petteril Necklace is found to be missing, Piers seeks out his burglar to get it back. However, their search leads them to Piers's own family – entitled, resentful and largely indebted. Only, which one of them is the thief?

As he uncovers the truth, Piers begins to find his feet and his old joy in life, not least in his burgeoning friendship with Ape, whose past is a mystery of its own.