Murder in the Conservatory of Compliments and Ice
(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, including the corpse, the melting architecture of dessert, and two people far too competent to be left alone together, and now they have decided I must also do the selling.
So here you are: a cozy Regency locked-room murder with ghosts, compliments, and dangerously serious ice. Viola Mowbray only means to keep Mrs. Chislett’s glittering conservatory from descending into social ruin; instead she gets one dead culinary critic in the cooling room, one indignant ghost attached to her shoulder, and Mr. Lucian Brereton, an exacting confectioner who handles evidence, feelings, and pistachio with equal alarming competence. All this in a house where everyone has manners, several people have motives, and the prettiest courtesies turn out to be excellent places to hide poison.
I watched every inch of it, so believe me when I say the danger is not merely who killed whom, but what will collapse if the truth comes out badly. Viola could lose her place, Mrs. Chislett could lose her reputation, the household could be shredded by scandal, and the wrong person could be neatly sacrificed for the sake of keeping elegance tidy. Society does adore a clean surface, even when there is laurel under it. Meanwhile Lucian keeps appearing wherever reason, restraint, and inconvenient attraction are least wanted, which is selfish of him, though admittedly useful.
If you like impeccably observed Regency manners, clue-rich house-party detection, one gloriously nuisance-grade ghost, sharp servant’s-hall intelligence, and a romance conducted through admiration, competence, and properly devastating kisses, you are exactly the sort of reader I am being made to fetch. This is a clue-rich cozy mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, non-gory violence, and a closed-door, low-heat romance with an HEA; it is also a complete standalone story in the Ghostly Grievances Society world. Click Look Inside, or buy it now and let me take you to the conservatory. Everyone was polite until the dessert developed opinions.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
So here you are: a cozy Regency locked-room murder with ghosts, compliments, and dangerously serious ice. Viola Mowbray only means to keep Mrs. Chislett’s glittering conservatory from descending into social ruin; instead she gets one dead culinary critic in the cooling room, one indignant ghost attached to her shoulder, and Mr. Lucian Brereton, an exacting confectioner who handles evidence, feelings, and pistachio with equal alarming competence. All this in a house where everyone has manners, several people have motives, and the prettiest courtesies turn out to be excellent places to hide poison.
I watched every inch of it, so believe me when I say the danger is not merely who killed whom, but what will collapse if the truth comes out badly. Viola could lose her place, Mrs. Chislett could lose her reputation, the household could be shredded by scandal, and the wrong person could be neatly sacrificed for the sake of keeping elegance tidy. Society does adore a clean surface, even when there is laurel under it. Meanwhile Lucian keeps appearing wherever reason, restraint, and inconvenient attraction are least wanted, which is selfish of him, though admittedly useful.
If you like impeccably observed Regency manners, clue-rich house-party detection, one gloriously nuisance-grade ghost, sharp servant’s-hall intelligence, and a romance conducted through admiration, competence, and properly devastating kisses, you are exactly the sort of reader I am being made to fetch. This is a clue-rich cozy mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, non-gory violence, and a closed-door, low-heat romance with an HEA; it is also a complete standalone story in the Ghostly Grievances Society world. Click Look Inside, or buy it now and let me take you to the conservatory. Everyone was polite until the dessert developed opinions.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's Murder in the Conservatory of Compliments and Ice