A Spot of Murder at the Cambridge Women's Rowing Club
(2026)(A book in the Interwar: Martinis & Motives Circle series)
A novel by Marisa Paxon
I’m the narrator of this book, which means I’ve already dragged everyone through every damp corridor, petty feud, and spectacularly ill-timed death, without so much as a thank-you biscuit. And now they want me to sell it as well. Fine. If I must.
Welcome to Cambridge, where luncheon is a blood sport and a women’s rowing club is considered an adorable mistake until it starts winning. Belle Haversham, the club’s catastrophically observant rowing secretary, is simply trying to keep the seat list honest and the boathouse key where it belongs. Then the lock-box is open, the biscuits are untouched, and the wrong key is sitting smugly in the river door.
Inside the boathouse: Lady Honoria Finchley, patron, purse, and professional menace, has chosen to be dead on club property, which is rude enough. Beside her, the fundraising ledger offers a neat little entry and a message that’s about as subtle as a boat-hook to the ribs: Keep quiet. Or else.
Naturally, the police arrive on a bicycle, because Cambridge loves pageantry. Inspector Lionel Merriweather turns up crisp as a stamped form and immediately starts looking at the details everyone else would rather pretend aren’t there: altered handwriting on the seat list, a cut ribbon, a missing key, a padlock no one admits to owning, wax where wax should not be, and a quiet kind of murder that doesn’t splash, but does leave the air tasting wrong.
Belle’s problem is that she notices everything. Merriweather’s problem is that he notices Belle noticing. Together they have to untangle a knot of donors, threatened reputations, men who think women’s sport is a hobby, and women who have learned to be sharp because soft gets you stepped on. Somewhere in the middle, someone starts leaving messages close enough to touch Belle’s satchel, her work, and her life, which is when things get personal, unhelpfully so.
Expect a clue-rich, non-gory mystery with sabotage, secrets, and a satisfying, logical unmasking, all set against cold river air, boiling kettles, and the kind of institutional contempt that wears a nice coat.
Also: a slow-burn, closed-door romance that stays tasteful and sharp, with kisses, tension, and a hopeful-for-now ending, because apparently even I’m not allowed to deny you that.
Perfect for readers who like smart cozy mysteries with bite, prickly heroines, competent investigators, academic politics, women versus the world, and romance that simmers rather than scorches, because subtlety is still a virtue even when murder isn’t.
This is a complete, stand-alone case in the Martinis & Motives Circle world, you can start here and feel smug immediately. Now click Look Inside and let Belle show you what happens when someone tells the wrong woman to keep quiet.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Welcome to Cambridge, where luncheon is a blood sport and a women’s rowing club is considered an adorable mistake until it starts winning. Belle Haversham, the club’s catastrophically observant rowing secretary, is simply trying to keep the seat list honest and the boathouse key where it belongs. Then the lock-box is open, the biscuits are untouched, and the wrong key is sitting smugly in the river door.
Inside the boathouse: Lady Honoria Finchley, patron, purse, and professional menace, has chosen to be dead on club property, which is rude enough. Beside her, the fundraising ledger offers a neat little entry and a message that’s about as subtle as a boat-hook to the ribs: Keep quiet. Or else.
Naturally, the police arrive on a bicycle, because Cambridge loves pageantry. Inspector Lionel Merriweather turns up crisp as a stamped form and immediately starts looking at the details everyone else would rather pretend aren’t there: altered handwriting on the seat list, a cut ribbon, a missing key, a padlock no one admits to owning, wax where wax should not be, and a quiet kind of murder that doesn’t splash, but does leave the air tasting wrong.
Belle’s problem is that she notices everything. Merriweather’s problem is that he notices Belle noticing. Together they have to untangle a knot of donors, threatened reputations, men who think women’s sport is a hobby, and women who have learned to be sharp because soft gets you stepped on. Somewhere in the middle, someone starts leaving messages close enough to touch Belle’s satchel, her work, and her life, which is when things get personal, unhelpfully so.
Expect a clue-rich, non-gory mystery with sabotage, secrets, and a satisfying, logical unmasking, all set against cold river air, boiling kettles, and the kind of institutional contempt that wears a nice coat.
Also: a slow-burn, closed-door romance that stays tasteful and sharp, with kisses, tension, and a hopeful-for-now ending, because apparently even I’m not allowed to deny you that.
Perfect for readers who like smart cozy mysteries with bite, prickly heroines, competent investigators, academic politics, women versus the world, and romance that simmers rather than scorches, because subtlety is still a virtue even when murder isn’t.
This is a complete, stand-alone case in the Martinis & Motives Circle world, you can start here and feel smug immediately. Now click Look Inside and let Belle show you what happens when someone tells the wrong woman to keep quiet.
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Used availability for Marisa Paxon's A Spot of Murder at the Cambridge Women's Rowing Club