title: The Devious Duchess
author: Smith, Joan
description: A handsome nobleman must crack the case -- or lose his only love.
  
  THE PENNY-PINCHING DUCHESS PLAN A BIRTHDAY DO FOR HER BROTHER? THAT WAS ODD INDEED!
  
  Deirdre Gower and her dashing fiance, Lord Belami, found it most peculiar that the Duchess's decrepit brother Lord Dudley Patmore should be so honored. But that was nothing compared with the next shock they received: Dudley was dead!
  
  And not merely dead but murdered -- before he could make significant changes in his will. After all, hadn't the profligate Sir Nevil Ryder been pumping his uncle for weeks about his own portion? And hadn't the Duchess broached the subject the very night of Dudley's demise, when she brought him the bowl of stew he later perished over, his stomach filled with arsenic?
  
  Deirdre begged Belami to learn the truth: if her aunt was guilty, she would not ruin him with scandal by allowing their marriage to take place. But as Belami pursued the clues in the case, he began to see the Duchess was not so innocent as he had first believed....