Murder, Manuscripts, and the Vicarage House Party
(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, every manuscript squabble, every social humiliation, every corpse, and now they have decided I must sell it as well, because apparently omniscience is not enough without marketing.
Rosamund Bellamy comes to a Regency manor-house mystery with medieval manuscripts, one impossible death, and an even more impossible ghost thinking she has been hired to catalogue a newly discovered cache at Vicarage House. Instead, an insufferably eminent scholar is found dead in the records room after a quarrel over forged notes, trimmed leaves, and other scholarly delicacies people somehow commit murder over. Then the man has the indecency to remain on the premises as a furious ghost, visible only to Rosamund, and begins dictating opinions from beyond the grave while she tries to identify a killer without losing her post, her good name, or her reason.
I should mention Elias Grantham, because the book certainly does. He is a grave, clever bookbinder with dangerous hands, a dry tongue, and the rare habit of treating Rosamund’s mind as if it were not decorative. Very inconvenient of him. Between a ghost who refuses to rest under editorial disadvantage, a house party full of rank, vanity, and polished deceit, and a murderer who hoped a sabotaged ladder would look like misfortune, I had quite enough to manage before anyone started falling in love properly.
If Rosamund fails, a killer walks free, the truth about the manuscripts goes into print as a lie, and the first future that has looked even faintly like her own may be snatched away by people with money, status, and worse manners than theology should permit. I had to keep all of that tidy, naturally.
Perfect for readers who like suspicious house parties, manor-house murders, sharp scholarly banter, competent heroines in reduced circumstances, grave heroes with alarming restraint, and one dead man who continues to critique the living far past the point of good breeding.
This is a complete stand-alone story in the Regency: Ghostly Grievances Society world, and what it offers is very plain: a clue-rich, satisfying Regency mystery with a logical reveal, non-gory violence, a closed-door slow-burn romance, and a genuine HEA. In other words, if you want forged marginalia, social venom, a haunted records room, and courtship conducted under administrative duress, stop hovering and open the book. I have already done most of the work.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rosamund Bellamy comes to a Regency manor-house mystery with medieval manuscripts, one impossible death, and an even more impossible ghost thinking she has been hired to catalogue a newly discovered cache at Vicarage House. Instead, an insufferably eminent scholar is found dead in the records room after a quarrel over forged notes, trimmed leaves, and other scholarly delicacies people somehow commit murder over. Then the man has the indecency to remain on the premises as a furious ghost, visible only to Rosamund, and begins dictating opinions from beyond the grave while she tries to identify a killer without losing her post, her good name, or her reason.
I should mention Elias Grantham, because the book certainly does. He is a grave, clever bookbinder with dangerous hands, a dry tongue, and the rare habit of treating Rosamund’s mind as if it were not decorative. Very inconvenient of him. Between a ghost who refuses to rest under editorial disadvantage, a house party full of rank, vanity, and polished deceit, and a murderer who hoped a sabotaged ladder would look like misfortune, I had quite enough to manage before anyone started falling in love properly.
If Rosamund fails, a killer walks free, the truth about the manuscripts goes into print as a lie, and the first future that has looked even faintly like her own may be snatched away by people with money, status, and worse manners than theology should permit. I had to keep all of that tidy, naturally.
Perfect for readers who like suspicious house parties, manor-house murders, sharp scholarly banter, competent heroines in reduced circumstances, grave heroes with alarming restraint, and one dead man who continues to critique the living far past the point of good breeding.
This is a complete stand-alone story in the Regency: Ghostly Grievances Society world, and what it offers is very plain: a clue-rich, satisfying Regency mystery with a logical reveal, non-gory violence, a closed-door slow-burn romance, and a genuine HEA. In other words, if you want forged marginalia, social venom, a haunted records room, and courtship conducted under administrative duress, stop hovering and open the book. I have already done most of the work.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's Murder, Manuscripts, and the Vicarage House Party