A Lark’s Gambit: The Sixth Verity Lark Mystery Arrives 24 July

Lynn Messina returns to Regency London with the sixth Verity Lark mystery. A Lark’s Gambit publishes on 24 July 2026 in paperback from Potatoworks Press, 411 pages.

Verity finds herself in an opium den. So does her suitor’s father. Neither of them expected company.

About the book

Oh, dear. Is that the Marquess of Ware enjoying a pipe in the very same upscale opium den as Verity Lark?

It is, yes.

Wonderful.

Now she must inform her suitor, Colson Hardwicke, of his father’s unsavory habit—which means she will have to reveal that she herself had been partaking in the very next berth.

He will understand.

Once she explains that the den is above the fish seller whose poppy trade she has been monitoring for months, he will totally get it. As London’s most intrepid reporter and dogged gossipmonger, she is duty bound to get to the bottom of the mystery.

What Hardwicke might find a little harder to accept is why she was kissing the marquess in a darkened room during a fashionable society affair.

That is a slightly more complicated story.

Alas, with a killer stalking her, she might not have a chance to tell it.

Early reviews

Lynn Messina knows how to balance the main mystery storyline and the relationship subplot perfectly… Only Lynn Messina can make you laugh out loud while reading about murder.

Where to get it

Preorder the paperback or Kindle edition on Amazon.

Reviewers can request an advance copy on NetGalley. The listing archives on 18 July 2026, six days before publication.