Murder in the Lending Boat at the Pleasure Gardens
(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 without thanks, and now they have ordered me to sell it as well, which is low even by human standards. A ghost-haunted Regency murder at a pleasure garden is apparently not enough labour for one day.
Dorothea Vale comes to the riverside gardens to paint souvenir views, mind her own business, and avoid society wherever possible. Naturally she gets none of the three. A committee tyrant is found dead in the subscribers’ boat; the dead woman promptly reappears at Dorothea’s shoulder to complain that the murder is one thing, but the booking irregularities are worse; and the only man with the sense to investigate quietly is Gideon Fenwick, who has the dry, exact manner of a person born to detect fraud and unsettle women by accident. So I had to drag everyone through blue-marked tickets, poisoned refreshment, stolen boat hours, offended widows, one very indecent secretary, and a ghost who refuses to rest until the paperwork is corrected properly.
If Dorothea fails, a murderer walks free, a wronged widow loses what was stolen from her, and Dorothea herself may be left looking like the sort of woman who talks to empty air in public, which is ruinous to comfort and not ideal for courtship. I watched the clues pile up beautifully, I might add: the wrong glass, the dry shoes, the missing parasol, the altered ledger, the sort of small social meanness that turns, with very little encouragement, into homicide.
If you like your mysteries historical, your ghosts officious, your humour dry, your clues neatly laid, and your romance slow, sharp, and supervised by scandal, this is very much your sort of trouble. Also, yes, the man is worth the inconvenience.
A clue-rich, non-gory Regency cozy mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, plus a closed-door, very low heat romance and a proper HEA. It is also a complete, self-contained story in the Regency: Ghostly Grievances Society world, so you may begin here without consulting a committee. Go on, then: open the book and let me show you how murder, desire, and administrative corruption can all fit into one boat.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Dorothea Vale comes to the riverside gardens to paint souvenir views, mind her own business, and avoid society wherever possible. Naturally she gets none of the three. A committee tyrant is found dead in the subscribers’ boat; the dead woman promptly reappears at Dorothea’s shoulder to complain that the murder is one thing, but the booking irregularities are worse; and the only man with the sense to investigate quietly is Gideon Fenwick, who has the dry, exact manner of a person born to detect fraud and unsettle women by accident. So I had to drag everyone through blue-marked tickets, poisoned refreshment, stolen boat hours, offended widows, one very indecent secretary, and a ghost who refuses to rest until the paperwork is corrected properly.
If Dorothea fails, a murderer walks free, a wronged widow loses what was stolen from her, and Dorothea herself may be left looking like the sort of woman who talks to empty air in public, which is ruinous to comfort and not ideal for courtship. I watched the clues pile up beautifully, I might add: the wrong glass, the dry shoes, the missing parasol, the altered ledger, the sort of small social meanness that turns, with very little encouragement, into homicide.
If you like your mysteries historical, your ghosts officious, your humour dry, your clues neatly laid, and your romance slow, sharp, and supervised by scandal, this is very much your sort of trouble. Also, yes, the man is worth the inconvenience.
A clue-rich, non-gory Regency cozy mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, plus a closed-door, very low heat romance and a proper HEA. It is also a complete, self-contained story in the Regency: Ghostly Grievances Society world, so you may begin here without consulting a committee. Go on, then: open the book and let me show you how murder, desire, and administrative corruption can all fit into one boat.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's Murder in the Lending Boat at the Pleasure Gardens