Murder, Millinery, and a Most Unsuitable Viscount
(2026)(A book in the Regency: Ghostly Grievances Society series)
A novel by Marisa Paxon
I am the narrator of this book. I carried every stitch, sigh, accusation, and corpse across the page without thanks, and now they have ordered me to sell it as well. Very well: this is a cozy Regency mystery with one poisoned patroness, one vexing ghost, and one most unsuitable viscount.
Lydia Pevensey is a milliner with better eyesight than the committee ladies she serves deserve, which is why she notices the missing silver trimming, the altered accounts, the wrong ribbon, and the exact moment Christian charity turns into murder. Then Mrs Priscilla Thistlewaite dies behind a mourning screen, sits up again as a thoroughly exasperated ghost, and proceeds to haunt Lydia through a London weekend full of stolen wedding finery, social hypocrisy, and Viscount Iddesleigh, a man with a crooked nose, dangerous competence, and the deeply inconvenient habit of believing her.
If Mrs Thistlewaite’s death is not solved, Lydia risks becoming the easiest woman in Bloomsbury to blame, Miss Vale loses the wedding gown and bonnet meant to be entirely her own, and several well-born vultures continue calling theft practicality. Society does so love a tidy injustice. What follows is a tangle of poisoned vinaigrettes, hidden notes, clipped facings, class spite, and one dead woman who refuses to rest until the right bride walks to church properly dressed and the right villain is made uncomfortable.
Perfect for readers who like sharp-tongued historical cozy mysteries, clue-rich investigations, bossy ghosts, class-conscious drawing room warfare, and a slow-burn, closed-door romance that spends a great deal of time pretending it is not a romance at all. It fools no one, least of all me. This is a clue-rich, non-gory Regency mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, plus a closed-door romance and a proper HEA, and it stands perfectly well on its own. Go on, then: look inside and let me drag you into the whole beautifully managed disaster.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Lydia Pevensey is a milliner with better eyesight than the committee ladies she serves deserve, which is why she notices the missing silver trimming, the altered accounts, the wrong ribbon, and the exact moment Christian charity turns into murder. Then Mrs Priscilla Thistlewaite dies behind a mourning screen, sits up again as a thoroughly exasperated ghost, and proceeds to haunt Lydia through a London weekend full of stolen wedding finery, social hypocrisy, and Viscount Iddesleigh, a man with a crooked nose, dangerous competence, and the deeply inconvenient habit of believing her.
If Mrs Thistlewaite’s death is not solved, Lydia risks becoming the easiest woman in Bloomsbury to blame, Miss Vale loses the wedding gown and bonnet meant to be entirely her own, and several well-born vultures continue calling theft practicality. Society does so love a tidy injustice. What follows is a tangle of poisoned vinaigrettes, hidden notes, clipped facings, class spite, and one dead woman who refuses to rest until the right bride walks to church properly dressed and the right villain is made uncomfortable.
Perfect for readers who like sharp-tongued historical cozy mysteries, clue-rich investigations, bossy ghosts, class-conscious drawing room warfare, and a slow-burn, closed-door romance that spends a great deal of time pretending it is not a romance at all. It fools no one, least of all me. This is a clue-rich, non-gory Regency mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, plus a closed-door romance and a proper HEA, and it stands perfectly well on its own. Go on, then: look inside and let me drag you into the whole beautifully managed disaster.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's Murder, Millinery, and a Most Unsuitable Viscount