Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Right Sort of Man | 2019 | Allison Montclair | Buy |
| 2 | A Royal Affair | 2020 | Allison Montclair | Buy |
| 3 | The Haunting of the Desks: A Sparks & Bainbridge Short Story | 2021 | Allison Montclair | N/A |
| 4 | A Rogue’s Company | 2021 | Allison Montclair | Buy |
| 5 | The Haunting of the Desks | 2021 | Allison Montclair | Buy |
| 6 | The Unkept Woman | 2022 | Allison Montclair | Buy |
| 7 | The Lady from Burma | 2023 | Allison Montclair | Buy |
| 8 | Murder at the White Palace | 2024 | Allison Montclair | Buy |
| 9 | An Excellent Thing in a Woman | 2025 | Allison Montclair | Buy |
| 10 | Fire Must Burn | 2026 | Allison Montclair | Buy |
The Sparks and Bainbridge Mystery series began with The Right Sort of Man (2019) and has grown to ten entries. The books follow Iris Sparks and Gwendolyn Bainbridge through postwar London as they balance their matchmaking business with increasingly frequent brushes with crime. A Royal Affair (2020), A Rogue’s Company (2021), and The Unkept Woman (2022) are among the full-length novels in the series.
The 1946 London setting gives the series a distinctive atmosphere – a city still marked by bomb damage and rationing, where the social order is shifting and old certainties no longer apply. Montclair writes this world with attention to period detail, and the partnership between the unconventional Iris and the proper Gwen provides both comedy and emotional depth.