"It's back to Corduroy Mansions--the slightly dilapidated but well-lived-in mansion block in London's hip Pimlico neighborhood--for the third installment in Alexander McCall Smith's newest popular series. There's never a dull moment for the residents of Corduroy Mansions: Berthea Snark is still at work on her scathing biography of the only loathsome Liberal Democrat member of Parliament--her own son, Oedipus; literary agents Rupert Porter and Barbara...

1847 England. Handsome, silver-tongued politician Lord Randall doesn't get along with his bank partner, the financially brilliant but hopelessly frumpish Isabella St. Vincent. Ever since she was his childhood nemesis, he's tried--and failed--to get the better of her. When both Randall's political career and their mutual bank interests are threatened by scandal, he has to admit he needs Isabella's help. They set off on a madcap scheme to set matters...

"The Enigma Earl. The Lord Phantom. That's what the gossip pages call Lord Greenwich, a mysterious nobleman who doesn't show his face in London Society. With a reputation like that, it's no wonder that Lydia Montgomery is horrified to be dragged from bed and packed off to live with him to save her mother from penury. While Lydia has received all of the training a lady should endure, she's decidedly un-ladylike. She despises her corset and isn't interested...

Her timing couldn't be worse ... Miss Eugenia Talbot's presentation to the Queen is spoiled by a serious faux pas -- the despicable William Grant made her laugh, right in front of Her Majesty. Now Eugenia is ruined and had better marry -- someone, anyone -- at once ... And his couldn't be better ... Roguish William Grant has never taken anything seriously in his life. Until he meets Eugenia Talbot, who makes him feel and do things he never thought...

Phoebe Atkinson is what society might call unconventional. Instead of marrying well like other women born to wealth, she chose to be a schoolteacher. Not to mention she lives in a leaky flat in an unfashionable part of town rather than stay in her parents' mansion. But when her most promising pupil goes missing and the police ignore her, she has only one option: beg her sister's best friend, the powerful Duke of Ellis, for help. If sending him a message...