The Deception at Lyme: Or, the Peril of Persuasion - Paperback

by Carrie Bebris (Author)

In Jane Austen's Persuasion, the Cobb--Lyme's famous seawall--proved dangerous to a careless young woman. Now it proves deadly.

Following their recent intrigue at Highbury, Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth Darcy visit the seaside village of Lyme on holiday. Family business also draws them there, to receive the personal effects of Mr. Darcy's late cousin, a naval lieutenant who died in action.

Their retreat turns tragic when they come upon a body lying at the base of the Cobb. The victim is Mrs. Clay, a woman with a scandalous past that left her with child--a child whose existence threatened the inheritance of one of her paramours and the reputation of another. Did she lose her balance and fall from the slippery breakwater, or was she pushed?

Mrs. Clay's death is not the only one that commands the Darcys' attention. When Mr. Darcy discovers, among his cousin's possessions, evidence that the young lieutenant's death might have been murder, he allies with Captain Frederick Wentworth (hero of Jane Austen's Persuasion) to probe details of a battle that took place across the sea...but was influenced by a conspiracy much closer to home.

The Deception at Lyme (Or, The Peril of Persuasion) is the delightful sixth installment in the critically acclaimed and award-winning Mr. and Mrs. Darcy mystery series by Carrie Bebris.

Author Biography

Award-winning author Carrie Bebris is best known for her Mr. & Mrs. Darcy Mystery series, which debuted with Pride and Prescience. The novel made the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association bestseller list and was named one of the five best mysteries of 2004 by Library Journal. The third book in the series, North by Northanger, won the Daphne du Maurier Award and a Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Historical Mystery.

Carrie is on the faculty of the 2008 Antioch Writers' Workshop and speaks frequently about writing and publishing. He holds a master's degree in English literature with an emphasis on 19th-century authors and studied Austen on the graduate level. She is a life member of the Jane Austen Society of North America and travels to England to enhance her understanding of Austen's life and work.