A Courteous Murder at Larkspur Hall

A Cozy Murder Mystery Regency Romance

Larkspur Hall wants a quiet redemption: a reformed sea lord, a curated Christmas guest list, a new housekeeper with keys at her waist and nothing left to lose. It receives a corpse on polished boards, a snowstorm that seals every exit, and Cecilia Arden calmly deciding the house is hers to defend.

His past vanished with a condemned ship and a missing report; her future depends on order, accounts, obedience. The first death is almost courteous. The attempts that follow are not. Shelves loosen. Leather parts. Laudanum thins. Every guest has touched the old scandal, profited from it, or buried a piece: a retired magistrate hungry to be right, a dramatist who cannot resist an audience, a clergyman who sat with dying men, a cousin who plays with ruin, a steward whose figures never quite add up, a loyal officer who might not be.

With the roads buried and the servants whispering, Cecilia and Viscount Ashford strike a private bargain: no more accidents. To keep it, she must weaponize civility, turn tea trays into interrogations, use seating charts as snares, and choose exactly how much of his guilt to believe.

Every hour the snow holds, the price of the wrong trust climbs. By Twelfth Night, either Larkspur Hall will stand honest, or the most dangerous mind in the house will decide courtesy no longer applies.