Murder at the Painted Fortune Salon
(2026)(A book in the Regency: Ghostly Grievances Society series)
A novel by Marisa Paxon
I am the narrator of this book. I carried the whole affair on my back, watched everyone lie in silk, kept the facts from falling over, and now they have decided I must sell it as well. Splendid. Here you are: a Regency murder in a fortune-telling salon, with one poisoned fraud, one sharp-eyed painter, and one deeply offended ghost.
Cecilia Penhalow paints elegant prophecies for the Painted Fortune Salon, which is a genteel way of saying she survives by making rich people''s nonsense look expensive. Then Barnaby Sibley, her vain, blackmailing employer, drops dead behind the consultation screen, and rises again almost at once to complain about the state of his title page. I had to endure that, and now so do you. Worse, Cecilia is the only one who can hear him, which would be awkward enough without Adrian Dacre arriving to examine frauds, sort suspects, and look at her as though he has every intention of noticing what everyone else misses.
What follows is letters tucked inside gilded proof sheets, social ruin in very good gloves, a mother prepared to strangle romance at the root, a widow far too composed for comfort, and a murder that is not half so simple as one dead man and a box of peppermints ought to suggest. If Cecilia fails, she loses her place, her hard-won independence, and quite possibly the only man in the room with a functioning mind, which would be intolerable for all concerned, especially me.
If you like dryly funny historical mysteries, clue-rich sleuthing, nuisance ghosts, brittle Regency manners, and a clever slow-burn pair who fall in love while untangling other people’s disgrace, you are precisely the sort of reader I am being made to diagnose. This is a complete, self-contained mystery in the Regency: Ghostly Grievances Society world, with non-gory murder, a satisfying logical reveal, and a closed-door romance with an HEA.
So do stop hovering in the doorway. Open the book, step into the salon, and let me show you exactly how expensive a lie can become.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Cecilia Penhalow paints elegant prophecies for the Painted Fortune Salon, which is a genteel way of saying she survives by making rich people''s nonsense look expensive. Then Barnaby Sibley, her vain, blackmailing employer, drops dead behind the consultation screen, and rises again almost at once to complain about the state of his title page. I had to endure that, and now so do you. Worse, Cecilia is the only one who can hear him, which would be awkward enough without Adrian Dacre arriving to examine frauds, sort suspects, and look at her as though he has every intention of noticing what everyone else misses.
What follows is letters tucked inside gilded proof sheets, social ruin in very good gloves, a mother prepared to strangle romance at the root, a widow far too composed for comfort, and a murder that is not half so simple as one dead man and a box of peppermints ought to suggest. If Cecilia fails, she loses her place, her hard-won independence, and quite possibly the only man in the room with a functioning mind, which would be intolerable for all concerned, especially me.
If you like dryly funny historical mysteries, clue-rich sleuthing, nuisance ghosts, brittle Regency manners, and a clever slow-burn pair who fall in love while untangling other people’s disgrace, you are precisely the sort of reader I am being made to diagnose. This is a complete, self-contained mystery in the Regency: Ghostly Grievances Society world, with non-gory murder, a satisfying logical reveal, and a closed-door romance with an HEA.
So do stop hovering in the doorway. Open the book, step into the salon, and let me show you exactly how expensive a lie can become.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's Murder at the Painted Fortune Salon