DEATH COMES TO KURLAND HALL

A squabbling pair of Regency sleuths is presented with a complicated case.

Shortly after they solved a murder while visiting London (Death Comes to London, 2014), Maj. Sir Robert Kurland asked Lucy Harrington for her hand in marriage. She refused him, and now the two are barely speaking. But they’re forced to deal with each other once more because Sir Robert has offered his home for use as a venue and guesthouse for Lucy’s friend Sophia’s wedding to a friend of his. When a nasty gossip is found dead at the bottom of a staircase in his home, both Sir Robert and Lucy are suspicious of the circumstances. Sir Robert had been briefly engaged to the murdered woman’s daughter, Penelope Chingford, whose main concern after her mother’s death is how she and her sisters will survive. There is also some mystery about the late Mrs. Chingford’s relationship to the widowed Emily Fairfax, who’s asked Sir Robert’s manager, Thomas Fairfax, her husband’s illegitimate son, to return home and manage the estate for her own young son. The field of suspects is rich because Mrs. Chingford’s snooping and sharp tongue earned her many enemies. Sir Robert and the decidedly independent Lucy investigate together until he alienates her with his overprotective ways. Even then, neither is ready to give up, and they continue to hunt for clues.

A saucy tale of love and murder, Regency style.