Grounds for Murder

The downstairs staff of the Pennyfoot Hotel are already on edge when a young Romani woman is found murdered in the woods, struck down with an axe. Before long, even the aristocrats upstairs are whispering about the brutal crime.

Cecily Sinclair is determined to keep the hotel running as usual—until she learns that the axe from the Pennyfoot’s coal shed has vanished.

Behind the hotel’s elegant doors, Edwardian nobles carry on secret affairs, gamble in hidden rooms, and depend on the staff’s discretion to protect their reputations. But if the murder weapon came from the Pennyfoot, Cecily knows suspicion will soon fall on everyone beneath her roof.

With Scotland Yard threatening to descend on the hotel, she must uncover who took the axe, what secrets the victim carried, and whether a killer is hiding among her guests—or her trusted staff.

An atmospheric period mystery filled with woodland murder, domestic intrigue, secret passages, and suspects on both sides of the servants’ staircase.