Murder, Hand-Coloured Scandal, and a Most Exacting Ghost
(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 wretched business, corpse, clues, flirtation, ghostly complaints, and all, and now they have decided I must do the selling too, as if omniscience were a servant’s place. Very well: in Covent Garden, Miss Susanna Kersey colours scandal for a living until her impossible employer drops dead beside his press and rises at once to object to the quality of his own murder.
What follows is a Regency cozy mystery with a murdered satirical print-seller, a meddling ghost, and a hand-colourist heroine who notices far too much for her own peace. I watch Susanna pick through poisonous packets, missing proofs, dangerous gossip, and one very inconvenient government officer, Mr Jonathan Dorring, whose dry competence would be trying enough even without the chemistry. Add a print that could disgrace half the fashionable world, a dead man insisting the hand in it must be corrected, and a room full of suspects with better gloves than morals, and I assure you nobody gets to have an easy Thursday.
If Susanna fails, she does not merely lose a case. She loses her livelihood, the future of Bell’s shop, and any hope of keeping her name out of the kind of scandal she usually paints onto other people for pay. I had to supervise every inch of that descent, naturally, while Bell hovered at her shoulder being posthumously exacting and Dorring kept getting closer to the truth, and to her, in a manner that would have been intolerable even without the murder.
Perfect for readers who like witty historical mysteries, clue-rich investigations, nuisance ghosts, sharp romantic banter, and one capable woman being hounded by both death and attraction. You know the type. You like your bodies non-gory, your suspects polished, and your longing properly buttoned until it is no longer practical.
This is a clue-rich, non-gory Regency mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, plus a low-heat romance with an HEA. It is a complete story with its own finished case and emotional payoff, so you may begin here without prior haunting. Go on, then: open the book and let me drag you through poisoned cordial, social ruin, and an alarmingly good kiss with some efficiency.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
What follows is a Regency cozy mystery with a murdered satirical print-seller, a meddling ghost, and a hand-colourist heroine who notices far too much for her own peace. I watch Susanna pick through poisonous packets, missing proofs, dangerous gossip, and one very inconvenient government officer, Mr Jonathan Dorring, whose dry competence would be trying enough even without the chemistry. Add a print that could disgrace half the fashionable world, a dead man insisting the hand in it must be corrected, and a room full of suspects with better gloves than morals, and I assure you nobody gets to have an easy Thursday.
If Susanna fails, she does not merely lose a case. She loses her livelihood, the future of Bell’s shop, and any hope of keeping her name out of the kind of scandal she usually paints onto other people for pay. I had to supervise every inch of that descent, naturally, while Bell hovered at her shoulder being posthumously exacting and Dorring kept getting closer to the truth, and to her, in a manner that would have been intolerable even without the murder.
Perfect for readers who like witty historical mysteries, clue-rich investigations, nuisance ghosts, sharp romantic banter, and one capable woman being hounded by both death and attraction. You know the type. You like your bodies non-gory, your suspects polished, and your longing properly buttoned until it is no longer practical.
This is a clue-rich, non-gory Regency mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, plus a low-heat romance with an HEA. It is a complete story with its own finished case and emotional payoff, so you may begin here without prior haunting. Go on, then: open the book and let me drag you through poisoned cordial, social ruin, and an alarmingly good kiss with some efficiency.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's Murder, Hand-Coloured Scandal, and a Most Exacting Ghost