A Murder Most Inconvenient at the Assembly Rooms
(2026)(A book in the Regency: Ghostly Grievances Society series)
A novel by Marisa Paxon
Yes, I’m the narrator of this book. I carried an entire evening of chandeliers, damp gloves, and weaponised politeness across the page without so much as a thank you, and now ‘they’ have decided I should also sell it. Naturally.
Here is the situation I was forced to witness in exhausting detail: Bath’s Assembly Rooms, one elegant set, one sudden corpse, and a ghost who refuses to take a hint. Monsieur Valette collapses mid performance, promptly dies in public, then rises out of himself with the air of a man discovering an administrative error and selects Adelaide Finchwick as his personal point of complaint. He begins, as all truly committed nuisances do, by criticising her shoulders.
Adelaide is a paid companion to the formidable Lady Hesketh, which means her livelihood depends on staying unnoticed, unremarkable, and ideally silent. Unfortunately, a dead dancing master hovering in the air is not conducive to ‘unremarkable’, and neither is the nagging certainty that something about his death has been tidied away a bit too efficiently. When a chipped wine glass vanishes, people with excellent coats and excellent manners begin to look less like ornament and more like opportunity.
Enter Julian Ashcombe, a magistrate’s clerk with a talent for quiet questions and an alarming willingness to take Adelaide seriously. Together, they edge through gossip, inquests, and the kind of respectable denial that would rather call anything ‘natural’ than admit the Assembly Rooms have secrets. Meanwhile, the ghost provides commentary, indignation, and entirely unasked for instruction on posture. As if murder was not enough work.
Perfect for readers who like ballrooms and barbed conversation, a meddlesome ghost, a steady, competent hero, and a heroine who notices every flinch, every omission, and every ‘harmless’ little detail someone is desperate to remove.
Expect a cozy Regency whodunit with a clue rich, fair play mystery and a satisfying, logical reveal, plus a closed door slow burn romance with an HEA. Violence is non gory, the feelings behave in public (until they don’t), and this is a complete stand alone case in the wider series, so you may begin here without consequences.
Go on then, click Look Inside, and let’s see if you can spot what everyone else was so determined not to.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Here is the situation I was forced to witness in exhausting detail: Bath’s Assembly Rooms, one elegant set, one sudden corpse, and a ghost who refuses to take a hint. Monsieur Valette collapses mid performance, promptly dies in public, then rises out of himself with the air of a man discovering an administrative error and selects Adelaide Finchwick as his personal point of complaint. He begins, as all truly committed nuisances do, by criticising her shoulders.
Adelaide is a paid companion to the formidable Lady Hesketh, which means her livelihood depends on staying unnoticed, unremarkable, and ideally silent. Unfortunately, a dead dancing master hovering in the air is not conducive to ‘unremarkable’, and neither is the nagging certainty that something about his death has been tidied away a bit too efficiently. When a chipped wine glass vanishes, people with excellent coats and excellent manners begin to look less like ornament and more like opportunity.
Enter Julian Ashcombe, a magistrate’s clerk with a talent for quiet questions and an alarming willingness to take Adelaide seriously. Together, they edge through gossip, inquests, and the kind of respectable denial that would rather call anything ‘natural’ than admit the Assembly Rooms have secrets. Meanwhile, the ghost provides commentary, indignation, and entirely unasked for instruction on posture. As if murder was not enough work.
Perfect for readers who like ballrooms and barbed conversation, a meddlesome ghost, a steady, competent hero, and a heroine who notices every flinch, every omission, and every ‘harmless’ little detail someone is desperate to remove.
Expect a cozy Regency whodunit with a clue rich, fair play mystery and a satisfying, logical reveal, plus a closed door slow burn romance with an HEA. Violence is non gory, the feelings behave in public (until they don’t), and this is a complete stand alone case in the wider series, so you may begin here without consequences.
Go on then, click Look Inside, and let’s see if you can spot what everyone else was so determined not to.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
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