Miss Morton and the English House Party Murder
A Riveting Victorian Mystery
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4.4 • 11 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie and Downton Abbey in this beguiling new Regency set series, as drastic circumstances compel Lady Caroline Morton, the penniless daughter of a deceased earl, to join the “downstairs” working class as a lady’s companion… whose duties soon involve solving a murder!
Following the suspicious death of her father, the Earl of Morton, and the discovery that she and her much younger sister have been left without income or home, Lady Caroline takes a post as a lady’s companion to wealthy widow Mrs. Matilda (Matty) Frogerton.
Eager to introduce herself and her rather wild daughter to the ton, Mrs. Frogerton is pleased when they are invited by Caroline’s aunt, Lady Eleanor Greenwood, to a house party in the countryside. For her part, Caroline is eager to see her little sister, who now lives with their aunt. But all is not well at the Greenwood estate . . .
For one thing, Lady Caroline’s former fiancé, Lord Francis Chatham, is a guest and refuses to speak to her. Worse, after a series of troubling harassments of the staff, an elderly family member is found fatally stabbed by a knitting needle. . . . As Caroline and an unexpected ally—Mrs. Frogerton—attempt to solve the chilling crime, they discover bizarre clues in the nursery as to who will be next. But they must make haste, for this heartless killer is engaged in anything but child’s play . . .
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Caroline Morton, the heroine of this uneven series launch set in 1837 England from Lloyd (the Kurland St. Mary mysteries), and her younger sister, Susan, are left penniless after the suicide of their debtor father. Unwilling to depend on the largesse of their closest relative, Lady Eleanor Greenwood, Caroline leaves Susan at Greenwood Hall and goes to work as companion to Mrs. Frogerton, a warmhearted, affluent widow seeking to launch her daughter in society. When Caroline and the Frogertons are invited to a house party at Greenwood Hall, Caroline anticipates a pleasant reunion with her sister. Instead, torrential rains isolate the hall just before her reclusive great-aunt Ines and then Mr. Woodford, the hall's butler, are murdered. Lady Eleanor and her husband hush up the crimes, but Caroline feels compelled to investigate. Mrs. Frogerton and outspoken local physician Oliver Harris—whose gruffness hides an attraction to Caroline—help her unravel the mystery. The smart and colorful sleuthing trio help offset the glut of secondary characters that overcomplicates the novel's first half, though there isn't much sense of time and place. Lloyd has done better.
