Lady Amelia Smallhope is the overlooked daughter of an aristocratic family — useful enough to be kept about the place, and convenient enough to be set up as the fall guy for her sister-in-law's schemes. When she starts making hasty plans to get out, the household's new butler nearly wrecks them. Pennyroyal, it turns out, is a great deal more than a butler: a charming and extremely plausible conman with an escape route of his own already prepared. That route runs through time.
This is the origin story of the pair Jodi Taylor's readers already know as side characters in the Chronicles of St Mary's and the Time Police — how the two of them met, how they went into partnership, and how they set themselves up as the most formidable time-travelling bounty hunters in the business. Recovery agents, thank you. No bad guy they can't handle, no expense account too flexible, and no rule they won't break, so long as they have each other's backs. It is fast, very funny, full of madcap action, and carries a light thread of romance underneath the caper.
First in the Smallhope & Pennyroyal series, published by Headline in September 2024. It stands entirely on its own — no knowledge of Taylor's other books is needed — and doubles as a considerably less daunting way into the wider world of St Mary's.