Lexie Conyngham
Hippolyta Napier Series
Recently married Hippolyta Napier is making a new life for herself and her husband in the spa town of Ballater, deep within the Scottish Cairngorms. As the new world of the British Empire convulses around their secluded fastness, Hippolyta quickly learns that in the Highlands, it is not just the winter that kills.
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'Conyngham makes the 1820s setting compelling ... her handling of misdirection is almost Christie-esque.' Lesley J. Holmes, The Leopard Magazine
A Knife in Darkness (Book One)
The distant Scottish spa town of Ballater seems a world away from the stylish and familiar streets of Georgian Edinburgh, but recently married Hippolyta Napier is making a new life amidst its dark woods and pure, flowing waters. But suspicion, intrigue and death await both inside and outside her new home, and the forces of nature take few prisoners.
Death of a False Physician
(Book Two)
The dreadful day is approaching for the Napiers in Ballater: Hippolyta Napier’s mother is coming to stay. But Mrs. Fettes is not just in Aberdeenshire to visit her youngest daughter: she has other reasons, and one will draw the whole family in, with deadly results.
A Murderous Game (Book Three)
The crack of duelling pistols echoes across the Scottish winter woodlands, drawing Hippolyta Napier into a murder that should not have been. Georgian Britain is convulsed by the advent of democracy, and waves of strife are washing over peaceful Ballater, leaving blood to run in its crystal clear waters. Will some of it be her own?
The Thankless Child (Book Four)
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The sun is shining, Ballater is full of wealthy visitors, and Mrs. Kynoch’s school for young ladies is flourishing - until one pupil, the daughter of a slave-owner, vanishes. Has she eloped with a rich man, or is something more sinister afoot? Hippolyta Napier needs to know, before a vulnerable local man is accused of something he could not have done.
A Lochgorm Lament (Book Five)
‘Uncle!’
The man lay with his head propped against the standing stone – what was left of his head. Hippolyta swallowed hard. ‘I’m a doctor’s wife,’ she told herself. ‘I can manage.’ No one can think why this man has been murdered, nor why passing farmer has also been attacked. But as Hippolyta Napier does her best to assist the sheriff’s man in damp, autumnal Ballater, they gradually unfold a web of violence, past tragedy and present crisis, threatening anyone who comes near it. A Lochgorm Lament is the fifth in the Ballater Murder series, set in 1830s Scotland.