Francis Oughterard Mystery Books in Order

In 1950s Surrey, Reverend Francis Oughterard's wish for quiet collapses into accidental murder, intrusive parishioners, and police attention. His cat Maurice and dog Bouncer become unlikely protectors as he struggles to keep an increasingly chaotic life from exposing him.

Reverend Francis Oughterard becomes entangled in an art theft while trying to avoid further trouble. A formidable novelist and amateur investigator pursues her own inquiries, leaving him with both criminal complications and an unwelcome threat to his carefully maintained respectability.

Blackmailed into stealing a valuable figurine, Reverend Francis Oughterard briefly hopes success will free him from trouble. Instead, another murder and a menacing adversary leave his cat Maurice and dog Bouncer working to protect him from fresh exposure.

Blackmailer Nicholas Ingaza draws Reverend Francis Oughterard into a dubious expedition to France's Auvergne. Pursued by murderous thugs and caught up with a peculiar religious sect, the vicar and his animal stowaways stumble through threats to their safety and secrets.

Returning from France, Reverend Francis Oughterard and his companions hope to regain a measure of respectability. A new blackmailer, threats against the bishop, and a body in a flowerbed plunge them into another web of deception that Maurice and Bouncer must untangle.

Eccentric artist Primrose Oughterard inherits her late brother's cat and dog along with responsibilities connected to his concealed crimes. Their new arrangement leads into murder, hidden evidence, and dangerous entanglements that make an ordinary life in East Sussex increasingly unlikely.

Back in Lewes, Primrose doubts that a woman who hated swimming accidentally drowned while wearing a bathing cap she would have disliked. Assisted by Maurice and Bouncer, she investigates the contradictions and uncovers a tangle of secrets and betrayal.