A crumbling country manor.
A house party filled with dreadful bores, retired colonels, theatrical aristocrats, suspicious gardeners, and far too much sherry.
And a corpse in the conservatory.
When amateur criminologist Emiline Stavely accepts an invitation to a lavish weekend gathering at Cornwallis Hall in the heart of the Cotswolds, she expects little more than jazz records, croquet on the lawn, and polite gossip over cucumber sandwiches.
Instead, shortly after a fiercely competitive croquet match, one of the guests collapses and dies.
The local doctor declares it a heart attack.
Everyone seems satisfied.
Everyone except Emiline.
A suitcase packed for a journey that was never planned.
A wine glass marked with crimson lipstick.
A conservatory door left mysteriously unlatched.
And a victim who appears to have been making enemies as enthusiastically as he collected antiques.
As rain sweeps across the honey-coloured hills and secrets bloom among the roses, Emiline finds herself navigating blackmail, hidden romances, wartime grudges, missing documents, and one extraordinarily dramatic retired colonel who is convinced foreign agents are involved.
The deeper she digs, the clearer one fact becomes:
Someone at Cornwallis Hall staged the perfect country-house murder.
And they are determined to get away with it.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
A house party filled with dreadful bores, retired colonels, theatrical aristocrats, suspicious gardeners, and far too much sherry.
And a corpse in the conservatory.
When amateur criminologist Emiline Stavely accepts an invitation to a lavish weekend gathering at Cornwallis Hall in the heart of the Cotswolds, she expects little more than jazz records, croquet on the lawn, and polite gossip over cucumber sandwiches.
Instead, shortly after a fiercely competitive croquet match, one of the guests collapses and dies.
The local doctor declares it a heart attack.
Everyone seems satisfied.
Everyone except Emiline.
A suitcase packed for a journey that was never planned.
A wine glass marked with crimson lipstick.
A conservatory door left mysteriously unlatched.
And a victim who appears to have been making enemies as enthusiastically as he collected antiques.
As rain sweeps across the honey-coloured hills and secrets bloom among the roses, Emiline finds herself navigating blackmail, hidden romances, wartime grudges, missing documents, and one extraordinarily dramatic retired colonel who is convinced foreign agents are involved.
The deeper she digs, the clearer one fact becomes:
Someone at Cornwallis Hall staged the perfect country-house murder.
And they are determined to get away with it.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for J A Clarke's A Cliche in the Conservatory