Murder Beneath the Ferns
(2025)and Other Botanical Misplacements
(A book in the Victorian: Graves and Gaslight Guild series)
A novel by Marisa Paxon
One dead patron. One poisonous Palm House. One inspector who keeps noticing the same woman.
The difficulty with unveiling a grand new Palm House is that someone invariably decides to die in it before the tea has been poured. When Lady Helena Westerleigh collapses face first into Briarwick Conservatory’s prize orchid at the opening ceremony, polite society blames the heat, the brass railings, and possibly the sandwiches, in that order. Miss Beatrice Elwood, botanical illustrator and reluctant expert in poisonous foliage, quietly notices the wrong spores on the right gloves and realises the plants are not the real danger in the room.
Enter Mr Ambrose Kincaid of Scotland Yard, imported from London like an especially judgmental specimen. To the board he is a reassuring ornament; to Beatrice he is an inconvenient observer who cannot quite decide whether she is an accomplice or an ally. Between mislaid ferns, anxious directors, and a village scandal that treats the inquest as the most riveting social event of the season, Beatrice and Kincaid must sift through alibis, half-truths, and very tidy beds before the next patron finds themselves permanently pressed.
In Murder Beneath the Ferns and Other Botanical Misplacements, poison, passion, and propriety are all in full bloom in a darkly comic cozy Victorian mystery with a slow burn, closed door romance where the glances smoulder and the bodies do not. Perfect for readers who love witty historical whodunits, clever heroines, grumpy inspectors, and murder, manners, and romance kept neatly arranged, lightly scandalous, and almost entirely off the autopsy table. Ideal for binge reading in Kindle Unlimited.
Genre: Mystery
The difficulty with unveiling a grand new Palm House is that someone invariably decides to die in it before the tea has been poured. When Lady Helena Westerleigh collapses face first into Briarwick Conservatory’s prize orchid at the opening ceremony, polite society blames the heat, the brass railings, and possibly the sandwiches, in that order. Miss Beatrice Elwood, botanical illustrator and reluctant expert in poisonous foliage, quietly notices the wrong spores on the right gloves and realises the plants are not the real danger in the room.
Enter Mr Ambrose Kincaid of Scotland Yard, imported from London like an especially judgmental specimen. To the board he is a reassuring ornament; to Beatrice he is an inconvenient observer who cannot quite decide whether she is an accomplice or an ally. Between mislaid ferns, anxious directors, and a village scandal that treats the inquest as the most riveting social event of the season, Beatrice and Kincaid must sift through alibis, half-truths, and very tidy beds before the next patron finds themselves permanently pressed.
In Murder Beneath the Ferns and Other Botanical Misplacements, poison, passion, and propriety are all in full bloom in a darkly comic cozy Victorian mystery with a slow burn, closed door romance where the glances smoulder and the bodies do not. Perfect for readers who love witty historical whodunits, clever heroines, grumpy inspectors, and murder, manners, and romance kept neatly arranged, lightly scandalous, and almost entirely off the autopsy table. Ideal for binge reading in Kindle Unlimited.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's Murder Beneath the Ferns