The Dowager's Dead Guest
(2025)and Other Parlour Problems
(A book in the Regency: Corpses & Courtship Club series)
A novel by Marisa Paxon
Cheltenham is meant to cure delicate lungs, not finish off guests behind a pianoforte.
Miss Verity Sedgewick, Lady Dowager Barham’s overworked social secretary, can organise a drawing room with a card tray and a smile. Unfortunately, someone has organised a death the same way: neatly, quietly, and with the sort of poison that leaves everyone insisting it must have been a faint. Deputy coroner and surgeon Gideon Wainwright refuses to call murder ‘unfortunate’; Verity refuses to let the town invent a prettier story.
Together they sift calling cards, stolen names, and poisoned tea, while Cheltenham’s finest circle sharpens its fans and its alibis. If Verity fails, she loses her wages, her roof, and the only respectable woman willing to employ a lady who notices too much.
Perfect for readers who want a clue rich Regency cozy with wickedly dry banter, drawing room politics, and a full fair play mystery. Expect non gory murder, and a closed door slow burn romance with a happy for now ending. A stand alone in the Corpses & Courtship Club, which means more mysteries are waiting the moment you finish. Tap Look Inside and let the gossip do its worst.
Genre: Mystery
Miss Verity Sedgewick, Lady Dowager Barham’s overworked social secretary, can organise a drawing room with a card tray and a smile. Unfortunately, someone has organised a death the same way: neatly, quietly, and with the sort of poison that leaves everyone insisting it must have been a faint. Deputy coroner and surgeon Gideon Wainwright refuses to call murder ‘unfortunate’; Verity refuses to let the town invent a prettier story.
Together they sift calling cards, stolen names, and poisoned tea, while Cheltenham’s finest circle sharpens its fans and its alibis. If Verity fails, she loses her wages, her roof, and the only respectable woman willing to employ a lady who notices too much.
Perfect for readers who want a clue rich Regency cozy with wickedly dry banter, drawing room politics, and a full fair play mystery. Expect non gory murder, and a closed door slow burn romance with a happy for now ending. A stand alone in the Corpses & Courtship Club, which means more mysteries are waiting the moment you finish. Tap Look Inside and let the gossip do its worst.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's The Dowager's Dead Guest