Murder, Mourning, and the Black Crape Question
(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 damp, black-ribboned affair from first glance to final kiss, and now they have decided I must sell it as well, which is really asking a great deal of one unseen intelligence.
What you are getting is a ghostly Regency cozy mystery with murder, mourning, and excellent taste. Hester Hollis is a widowed mantua-maker in London, sharp-eyed, underpaid, and thoroughly unimpressed by commerce in all its shinier forms. She is summoned to judge a disputed length of mourning crape, only for the most censorious woman in the room to die in a display coffin and then continue the day as a ghost. Yes, dead. Yes, opinionated. Yes, still determined that one poor widow must be put into proper black before anyone does anything else badly. I then had to manage poisoned vinaigrettes, fraudulent mourning goods, anonymous threats, and a heroine with the deeply inconvenient habit of being competent.
There is also Jonas Trelawney, an undertaker with steady hands, dangerous discretion, and the unsettling tendency to believe Hester before society has finished arranging its face. Between them, and very much with my assistance, they pick through crooked warehouse books, chemists’ paper, polished lies, and the sort of genteel malice that ruins a woman far more neatly than blood ever could. If Hester fails, a murderer walks free, respectable thieves keep their profits, another widow’s reputation stays in tatters, and Hester risks the hard-won business and good name that keep her standing at all.
Perfect for readers who like capable widows, dry British wit, clue-heavy historical mysteries, troublesome ghosts, and a romance that keeps its gloves on until it matters. This is a complete stand-alone case, by the way. The wider world contains other self-contained disasters, because apparently nobody in it can behave properly, but this story settles its own accounts.
Expect a clue-rich, non-gory mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, paired with a closed-door, slow-burn romance and a proper HEA. If that sounds like your sort of beautifully managed calamity, click Look Inside and let me usher you into the black crape question.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
What you are getting is a ghostly Regency cozy mystery with murder, mourning, and excellent taste. Hester Hollis is a widowed mantua-maker in London, sharp-eyed, underpaid, and thoroughly unimpressed by commerce in all its shinier forms. She is summoned to judge a disputed length of mourning crape, only for the most censorious woman in the room to die in a display coffin and then continue the day as a ghost. Yes, dead. Yes, opinionated. Yes, still determined that one poor widow must be put into proper black before anyone does anything else badly. I then had to manage poisoned vinaigrettes, fraudulent mourning goods, anonymous threats, and a heroine with the deeply inconvenient habit of being competent.
There is also Jonas Trelawney, an undertaker with steady hands, dangerous discretion, and the unsettling tendency to believe Hester before society has finished arranging its face. Between them, and very much with my assistance, they pick through crooked warehouse books, chemists’ paper, polished lies, and the sort of genteel malice that ruins a woman far more neatly than blood ever could. If Hester fails, a murderer walks free, respectable thieves keep their profits, another widow’s reputation stays in tatters, and Hester risks the hard-won business and good name that keep her standing at all.
Perfect for readers who like capable widows, dry British wit, clue-heavy historical mysteries, troublesome ghosts, and a romance that keeps its gloves on until it matters. This is a complete stand-alone case, by the way. The wider world contains other self-contained disasters, because apparently nobody in it can behave properly, but this story settles its own accounts.
Expect a clue-rich, non-gory mystery with a satisfying logical reveal, paired with a closed-door, slow-burn romance and a proper HEA. If that sounds like your sort of beautifully managed calamity, click Look Inside and let me usher you into the black crape question.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's Murder, Mourning, and the Black Crape Question