Rosa Epton
16 total works
Solicitor Rosa Epton has vowed never again to work on a case with Malcolm Palfrey. For two years she's managed to keep that promise - but when Palfrey journeys from distant Nettleford personally to request her assistance in one final case, Rosa finds herself reluctantly agreeing.
Initially the job seems routine enough: the two lawyers are to defend a young couple charged with malicious damage following a night of reckless drinking. While Rosa doggedly prepares the defence, Palfrey's participation is almost nonexistent, and on the day of the trial he fails to turn up. What Rosa doesn't know is that he is slumped over a park bench with a bullet in his brain and gun in his hand ...
When Evelyn Henshaw comes to Rosa Epton's office demanding that in the event of her disappearance her husband be investigated for murder, Rosa is more than a little doubtful. Hesitant to take the woman on as a client, she is drawn in when Mr Henshaw subsequently arrives at her office claiming that his wife has disappeared.
And when the young lodger living in the couple's home turns up dead, Rosa must unearth the skeletons of the couple's troubled marriage and fit together the pieces of a complicated puzzle.
A prominent judge is murdered on the opening day of the new Runnymede Crown Court, and Rosa Epton become doubly involved, both as a witness to the murder and the solicitor in a drugs trial over which Judge Ambrose was to have presided.
His replacement, Judge Holtby, seems unduly upset by the death of his colleague - and then two more deaths occur. But was Judge Ambrose the real target in the first place? And what involvement does Rosa's client in the drugs case have in the whole business?
Eventually Rosa is able to deduce the likely sequence of events, but there is still a final secret to be revealed ...
Her Honour Judge Celia Kilby does not suffer fools gladly. Criminals, counsel and clerks all feel the lash of her tongue, and all know her bark is as vicious as her bite. So when she receives an anonymous letter threatening her life, no one is particularly surprised.
But the police investigation fails to substantiate the threat; and then Judge Kilby is found murdered in her own garden and surprising aspects of her private life come to light, including an illegitimate son.
Suspects and motives abound, but means and opportunity remain elusive - until Rosa Epton accepts a client who confesses to being the anonymous letter writer. But is her client the killer?
Deepwood Grange is no longer what it was in the thirties: the beautiful old house has been converted into luxury apartments, and the original family is long gone. But on a rare visit to her godmother, solicitor Rosa Epton finds herself quite entertained by the eccentric residents of the other flats. Until, that is, one of them turns up dead in the chimney of an empty apartment, and her godmother becomes a prime suspect.
Then her godmother disappears, and Rosa's involvement becomes even more personal ...
For the police it was an open and shut case: Stephen Lumley was guilty of taking part in the robbery at his uncle's jewellery shop. All the evidence was against him - he was unemployed and in debt, he'd made threats in the past against his uncle, Bernard Hammond, and he'd tried to escape when the other thieves fled the scene.
Yet Lumley maintains his innocence, and the only person who believes him - apart from his wife - is his lawyer, the intuitive Rosa Epton. Rosa's efforts to learn the truth are frustrated by the elusiveness of a possible lead, so Lumley must stand trial at the Old Bailey. Undeterred, Rosa carries on her private enquiries with little success, until, that is, her lead turns up - dead.
As the police investigate, new evidence comes to light, and events take another turn when Hammond's wife is kidnapped.
It is extremely bad luck for Sarah Atkins that she is very slightly over the limit when she knocks down and kills a man in a patch of fog. It is even worse luck that the man is Jonathan Cool, a well-known pop star.
There are three witnesses: Cool's girlfriend, Sarah's husband and Sarah, whose fate will turn on their testimony. But as the evidence unfolds, it begins to appear that this may not have been a run-of-the-mill accident, and it is down to her solicitor, Rosa Epton, to unravel the truth.
In the fourth Rosa Epton mystery, Underwood's protagonist, whom Mystery Magazine declared 'one of mystery fiction's most talented attorneys', is called upon to defend the scapegrace younger brother of an acquaintance.
Then the acquaintance himself is murdered, his skull crushed with a statuette of the Indian goddess Lakshmi, and Rosa must divide her time between manipulating a magistrate smitten with her charms and divining the culprit's identity.
On New Year's Eve, solicitor Rosa Epton spends a pleasant evening talking to a man who seems to be finding the date he has brought with him less than satisfactory company. The next morning she receives a call from the police. Toby Nash has been charged with raping the woman with whom he attended the party, and has asked for Rosa.
Unfortunately for Nash and Rosa, the detective inspector in charge of the case is determined to get a conviction by any means.
No one knew what finally prompted a shy young schoolboy to walk out of Warren Hall School never to return. The discovery of some of Stephen Willett's bloodstained clothing in an overgrown ditch throws suspicion on Wally Price, a local odd-job man, and his suicide is seen as an admission of guilt.
Over fifty years later another tragedy strikes Warren Hall when the body of a stranger is discovered in the school grounds. The local postmaster is charged with murder and solicitor Rosa Epton is summoned from London to advise him on his defence.
Then a second murder at the school - and the discovery of some damning evidence against her client - makes Rosa determined to investigate leads that the police have overlooked. So she embarks on the most challenging assignment of her career: one that involves long-held secrets and dangerous confrontations. For a killer stands between Rosa and the truth.
A chance sighting in a café in Amsterdam gives solicitor Rosa Epton an unwelcome shock. At a nearby table sits an ex-client who should be behind bars, having recently been sentenced to five years in prison. So what is Eddie Ruding doing in Amsterdam a few weeks later?
On her return to England, Rosa makes a few discreet enquiries, only to draw a blank. But just as she has decided to try to put the matter out of her mind, a newspaper report shocks her into action. Eddie Ruding has been found dead, his crumpled body lying at the foot of the walls of Wandsworth Prison.
Not much was known about Arthur Kedby in the West End Club that he frequented. 'He doesn't look much like a secret agent,' remarked one member, but in general that was what he was believed to be. But Kedby is a blackmailer, and not even a very successful one; his great success lies in the fact that he has never been caught.
Then he recognises the face of a club guest - a face he has seen before. And all at once Kedby has an opportunity to practise his skills at a level that might just furnish him with a pension ...
The appointment of a new Chief Prosecuting Solicitor has caused outrage and gossip, but no one could have imagined that murder would ensue. Nor that an arrogant and stubborn policeman would make a premature arrest and then set about gathering the evidence to substantiate his arrest. Then a second murder throws the case into even more confusion.
Meanwhile, Rosa Epton has appeared on the scene to defend the accused, and she is soon locked in battle with the police and increasingly determined to get to the truth.