Rona Parish

Rona Parish is eager for a fresh challenge after her successful articles on adopted children. A chance encounter with an old friend, Kate - now married into the Tarlton family, who own the oldest jewellery shop in Marsborough - sows the seed for a new series. Rona plans to research the histories of long-established family firms in the town. Kate also enlists Rona's help in getting to the bottom of her sister-in-law Freya's terrifying nightmares after a tune from a musical box triggers a severe reaction.

Rona Parish is writing an article on old family businesses when she learns that Curzon, local manufacturers of fine bone china, are about to celebrate their 150th anniversary. Rona decides to approach the firm, and gets caught up in Curzon family life.

When a young woman, Louise, comes to Rona with a plea for help, all her journalistic instincts are aroused. Against her better judgement - and husband Max's advice - Rona is once again drawn into a complex and disturbing sequence of events.

Rona Parish is asked to write a biography of reclusive artist Ellie by her concerned sister. Ellie has seemingly disappeared, and the mystery surrounding her whereabouts has fuelled a new interest in her work. But when Rona discovers that Ellie’s closest friend committed suicide, Rona wonders whether Ellie, wracked by guilt over her friend’s death, could have been driven to do likewise....

An old school photograph in which someone has been deliberately blacked out marks the start of a new case for Rona Parish. Who was this person and why would someone want to hide his or her identity? Rona sets out to uncover the secret and soon finds that the school in question closed down many years ago due, it was rumoured, to a long-forgotten scandal. Could this be the link that will solve the mystery? Meanwhile, a visit to a stage hypnotist results in more than Rona and her friends bargained for...

Biographer Rona Parish has a new project - contributing a series for the local glossy magazine, Chiltern Life, documenting life-changing experiences from those who have lived through them. When her father suggests she speaks to his friend, Frank Hathaway, who was in Iraq during the invasion of Kuwait, Rona decides to pay him a visit. But Frank was also badly injured in a failed rescue attempt following a car crash the previous year and has been tormented by flashbacks ever since.