Patricia Finney Books In Order

Publication Order of David Becket and Simon Ames Books

Publication Order of Jack Books

Publication Order of James Enys Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Lady Grace Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Lugh Mac Romain Books

Publication Order of Sir Robert Carey Books

Publication Order of Young Carey Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Patricia Finney was born in 1958. She is an English journalist and author who has penned several books under multiple noms de plume. Her pen names include Grace Cavendish and P.F. Chisholm. She published her very first book when she was 18, called A Shadow of Gulls. It won the 1977 David Higham Award for the best first novel of the year and had her first play, The Flood, debut on BBC Radio 3. She would go on to write other radio plays, including the play A Room Full of Mirrors.

Patricia graduated with a degree in history from Oxford University. She has published 15 other books set in a variety of genres and times, including crime novels, spy books, Elizabethan dramas and books for children. She has also published more books that were written in Doglish, dog language.

Patricia has also penned the Lugh Mac Romain series, the David Becket and Simon Ames series (a trilogy), and the Robert Carey series as P.F. Chisholm, which starts with A Famine of Horses and ends with the seventh book, A Chorus of Innocents, published in 2015. She also wrote the Lady Grace Cavendish series under the pen name Grace Cavendish. This includes the first novel Assassin all the way to the twelfth book, Loot, published in 2010. She also wrote the Jack series, featuring I, Jack, Jack and the Police Dog Rebel, and Jack and the Ghosts.

Characters by Patricia Finney

Patricia Finney is responsible for a number of characters, including Lugh Mac Romain, David Becket, Simon Ames, Lady Grace Cavendish and Sir Robert Carey. Sir Robert Carey is a brave and emotional noble who finds himself hopelessly in love with a married woman, Elizabeth, while the Lady Grace series tell of a girl detective who is a maid of honor to who other than the Queen herself (Queen Elizabeth). She is also the author of Jack, a dog and the star of a series of children’s books featuring the lovable golden Retriever. She also penned the characters of Simon Ames and David Becket, a Jewish codebreaker and an ex-soldier. With a character for every series and always something new to bring to the table, Finney has long been a valuable part of the writing world.

Books by Patricia Finney

A Famine of Horses

In A Famine of Horses the reader finds the main character Sir Robert Carey, a rather good looking courtier. He has come to Carlisle in the year 1592 in order to take up his new job as the Deputy Warden of the West March as a way to be closer to his true love. His true love is a married woman and he has taken up the position as the Deputy Warden to be nearer to the woman whom he is obsessed with but also at the same time to get a little further away from the creditors who might want to make some trouble for him.

Not only that, but Sir Robert Carey has to contend with the Queen’s cousin– his father. He can really use the break. However, he’s not really going to do that well if he cannot keep the peace. Unfortunately, the universe has other plans. The murder of a local boy and more are coming down on him, and it’s definitely not going to help him stay under wraps. Add to that the suspicion and frustration of the husband of the lady he is in love with and the betrayal of a rival, and the hundreds of horses that are disappearing throughout the neighborhood and apparently being stolen– and you’ve got a stir that Sir Robert would rather do without, lest it bring attention down upon him in a most unfavorable way.

At this point, Sir Robert must figure out whether the greater threat is outside his world or within. The Scots are scheming outside the city walls, but there is also quite a bit of unrest among the English garrison. This book has been called intriguing and rustling with high ambition and a romp through roguish courtiers in a medieval setting. It is the first book in the Sir Robert series and sets the stage for a series of engaging and enjoyable hijinks in the sixteenth century.

A Season of Knives

Published in 1995, A Season of Knives once more features the Sir Robert Carey. He is in trouble again and is coming under the watchful eye of the Queen as well as his father— so he’s fleeing his creditors and going all the way north to Carlisle in order to be nearer to the one he loves as before. Sir Robert has pout horse thieves and troublemakers alike to bed, and had everything all sorted out for a while. Now, however, the year is 1592, and he’s in trouble again.

The Grahams are planning on causing him trouble as they are going to kidnap Elizabeth on the way home to see her husband. Sir Robert is the only one who can stop them, but before he can do so, a man is murdered. In fact, the man who was murdered was one that he just recently got fired from his job as paymaster to the Carlisle garrison. So when Sir Robert comes back and finds Barnabus slung into jail for the very crime, and with his enemy Sir Richard Lowther planning to have his arrested for planning the murder, he has no choice but to find his way out of it.

Danger and ruin lurk around every corner, and it’s up to Sir Carey to defeat them all. Not only that, but Sir Robert is finding that everyone is actually going along and believing the story that he did it– even more disturbing. As Sir Robert handles the murder inquiry and dives into a tale of lust and love, greed, plotting, and deception, he is forced to confront his feelings for the darling love of his life and whether he will hide them much longer.

The series has been praised as one of the top mystery series ever penned. Finney/Chisholm is said to have combined fast paced action with a beautifully rendered setting and historical details that are ‘fascinating’.