Sheri Cobb South Books In Order

Publication Order of John Pickett Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Sweet Dreams Books

Publication Order of Weaver Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Sheri Cobb South
When Sheri Cobb South was sixteen, she discovered Georgette Heyer, and came to a startling realization that she was born into the wrong century. Even though she doubtless would have been somebody’s chambermaid had she actually lived in Regency England, that never stopped her from fantasizing about waltzing the night away in a wealthy, handsome, and titled gentleman’s arms.

Since Georgette Heyer was dead and therefore unable to write any more Regencies, Ms. South came to the conclusion that she would have to just do it herself. After honing her craft on five young adult books for Bantam’s Sweet Dreams series, she tried her hand at the genre that she had loved for quite some time. “The Weaver Takes a Wife”, her first Regency romance, was released in the year 1999, to critical acclaim.

In addition to writing Regency romance, she also writes a series of Regency mysteries that features idealistic young Bow Street Runner John Pickett. He was described by All About Romance as being entirely delectable yet a bit young.

When Sheri is not busy with writing, she enjoys traveling, singing in her church choir, needlework of any kind, and reading.

Sheri’s books have been translated into half a dozen languages, released in large-print and audiobook editions, and have been recorded by the Library of Congress as part of its Books for the Blind program.

When she waited for inspiration to write something, it took her an entire year to pen just one 65,000 word manuscript. Thanks to her moving to Colorado and a meeting with an amazing science fiction writer named Connie Willis, she takes her computer to Starbucks three or four days each week, and spend a few hours there sipping mocha frappaccino and writing.

Some days she has no idea what she is going to write once she opens her document, and others she knows precisely what scene she’ll be working on. Sometimes she struggles just to get three hundred words, while others she notices that her back is aching from sitting down, and she realizes that she has written over two thousand words.

She is certain that writing is a faith proposition, that when she takes that first step, the words do come, but as long as she holds out for whatever reason, nothing comes. This change of doing things has helped her go from writing only one book a year to about two. It’s also helped her quality of writing, as well.

“In Milady’s Chamber” is the first novel in the “John Pickett Mystery” series and was released in the year 2006. Low dealings in high society. Lady Fieldhurst, estranged from her husband because of her failure to produce an heir for him, resolves to repay his neglect by taking on a lover. Fate plays a hand when she and her would be lover go into her bedroom to discover Lord Fieldhurst lying on the floor with her nail scissors sticking out of his neck.

John Pickett, Bow Street Runner age twenty-four, is new to the Bow Street force, has spent much of his short career chasing pickpockets and petty thieves. Nothing in all of his experience has prepared him for low dealings in high society. Or for the beautiful young widow that is also the prime suspect.

“A Dead Bore” is the second novel in the “John Pickett Mystery” series and was released in the year 2008. Lady Fieldhurst, who is eager to escape from London after the scandal of her husband’s death, accepts the invitation to spend the summer in rural Yorkshire being the guest of Sir Gerald and Lady Hollingshead. She quickly finds, however, that country life isn’t the panacea she’d hoped for: tempers flare and tension reigns at Hollingshead Place, due largely to Lady Hollingshead’s ambitions for her own daughter. Who is a lovely young lady that is destined for a brilliant marriage despite her love for the penniless curate.

When a dinner party concludes with a vicar’s death, who was a kindly old soul whose one and only sin seems to be the authorship of a dull local history, and Lady Fieldhurst suspects foul play and asks for John Pickett. She has one single stipulation: since she’s a guest in their house, he must keep his connection to Bow Street secret. He obliges by presenting himself as her footman, complete with powdered hair and livery.

However he quickly has his white-gloved hands full sifting through the old secrets, dealing with the demanding housekeeper, and revealing some old passions, not to mention avoiding the younger daughter of the house, who is a precocious fourteen year old that has a school girl infatuation for the fake footman. Then there’s the issue of Lady Fieldhurst herself, at once a much too pleasant distraction and an able assistant.

“Family Plot” is the third novel in the “John Pickett Mystery” series and was released in the year 2014. Recently widowed Lady Fieldhurst is in disgrace again with her aristocratic in-laws and is exiled off to Scotland with her three young nephews. On impulse, she and the kids decide they will stay at a remote seaside inn under an assumed name, where they’ll be able to enjoy a vacation away from the scandal which still plagues the family.

However trouble quickly finds them once the boys find an unconscious woman out on the beach, a woman that bears a shocking resemblance to the local laird’s daughter, missing and presumed to be dead for the previous fifteen years. Uncertain about whether or not to welcome her as a returning prodigal or denounce her as a fraud, Angus Kirkbride ships her to London for a Bow Street Runner.

At the same time, John Pickett, who hopelessly pines for Lady Fieldhurst, resolves to just forget her by marrying somebody else. When magistrate Patrick Colquhoun gets Kirkbride’s summons, he sends Pickett off to Scotland before his most junior of Runners can do anything rash. Angus Kirkbride dies just hours after he announced his intention to alter his will in his daughter’s favor, John and Lady Fieldhurst have to join forces to learn the truth about this family reunion which turned lethal all of a sudden.