When Andrew Rogers dies on his yacht off the coast of Prospect Island, no one is expecting his eldest daughter Madison to inherit his fortune – instead of his only son.

Alienated from her angry family, Madison finds haven in her marriage to the charismatic Gregory Moretti – until his estranged brother Rex comes out of prison vowing vengeance.

Rex’s actions soon strike fear into Madison’s entire family. When he is found brutally murdered, it appears to be an open and shut case…

It takes the brilliant acumen of Lyle Revel, star of the US daytime soap opera If Tomorrow Comes, to unravel the mystery with the help of Hermione Bradbury.

But their plan to expose the killer’s outrageous deception places them both in terrible danger…

For fans of Agatha Christie, Anthony Horowitz, Richard Osman and Sidney Sheldon

How I Created Lyle Revel and Hermione Bradbury by Jared Cade

Deadly Fortune is book number three in a series of cosy British mysteries featuring the crime-solving duo of actor Lyle Revel and cellist Hermione Bradbury. When they are not pursuing their individual careers, they are usually getting mixed up in all sorts of revelry and mayhem.

History has shown creating a detective for a series of crime novels can be fraught with difficulty. Above all else, I wanted a pair of detectives who would remain eternally young. I also wanted a great detective in the Sherlock Holmes tradition and so actor Lyle Revel – a charming, if incorrigible show-off – was born. Having watched several dark-haired actors play James Bond in my childhood, I went against the grain by giving Lyle Revel blond hair. He’s also blessed with a happy-go-lucky nature since the cliché of an alcoholic copper who’s as rude as the villains he catches bores me rigid – no doubt as a result of my being a near teetotaller.

The character of Hermione Bradbury came to me before Lyle Revel. She’s a respected cellist and daughter of a Tory MP. Since Hercule Poirot has an egg-shaped head, I decided I wanted a similar evocative phrase to describe my beguiling red-haired heroine so I endowed Hermione Bradbury with a ‘Pre-Raphaelite face’ that reminds others of the harpist in Rossetti’s painting La Ghirlandata.

Although Hermione is extremely shrewd financially, she is far more emotional than Lyle and frequently leads them both in trouble owing to her warm and impulsive nature. The playful tone of their relationship is emphasized by the fact that Hermione drives a 1948 red MG TC roadster called Casanova while Lyle prefers a modern silver convertible which he has named Lady Godiva in tribute to a certain lady who once rode naked through Coventry on horseback to persuade her husband to repeal the oppressive taxes he was forcing his tenants to pay.

One of my favourite Christies during my youth was The Secret of Chimneys. I especially liked the character of Virginia Revel. Revel struck me as an interesting surname since it conjured up the phrase ‘revelry and mayhem.’ (For avoidance of doubt, it rhymes with ‘devil’ rather than ‘bell.’) Lyle Revel’s Christian name was inspired by the American actor Lyle Waggoner who I once saw in an episode of The Love Boat reacting graciously to being ditched by his girlfriend.

Lyle Revel and Hermione Bradbury began their crime-solving careers together in The Elusive Dietrich by tracking down a wanted Nazi fugitive who had escaped detection for decades. This was followed by the elimination thriller Murder on London Underground which sees them foiling terrorists who have released a runaway train on the network. For added measure, they also unmask a strangler in the novella Murder in Pelham Woods. In Deadly Fortune, the third full-length book in the series, Lyle Revel and Hermione Bradbury have ditched the English countryside for the bright lights of America while he stars in the daytime soap opera If Tomorrow Comes and finds his sleuthing skills are needed when a killer strikes within the wealthy Rogers family.