Murder, Fireworks and Other Vauxhall Amusements

A Cozy Regency Mystery of Love and Murder

Vauxhall Gardens after dark is supposed to provide music, scandal, and fireworks, not an inconvenient corpse in the middle of the promenade. Unfortunately for everyone, Charlotte Penbury is on duty with a tray, a borrowed maid’s gown, and a sketchbook full of London’s worst secrets when a moralising Member of Parliament ends his evening by becoming headline material instead of writing it.

Charlotte earns her bread as a political caricaturist with an unhelpful habit of drawing exactly what she sees. Sebastian Harcourt earns his as the Home Office’s tidiest problem solver, sent to ensure Vauxhall does not become synonymous with sedition, murder, or both. When Charlotte’s secret sketches of the quarrel before the death put her in the path of the inquest, the newspapers, and Sebastian’s very particular idea of the truth, she finds herself juggling employers, evidence, and a man who dislikes neat conclusions almost as much as she does.

As canal money goes missing, investors lie beautifully, and Vauxhall’s dark walks acquire too many stories, Charlotte and Sebastian must decide how much order justice can survive. If she fails, she loses her livelihood, her hard won independence, and the one man who actually reads the small print of her drawings.

Perfect for readers who love cozy Regency mystery, sharp social satire, offstage-but-unmistakable murder, and closed door slow burn romance with a happy for now ending. Expect a clue rich fair play mystery, non gory deaths, inconvenient attraction, and just enough fireworks to light up your next reading binge.

A sharp tongued Regency caricaturist, a painfully correct Home Office man, and one very public corpse at Vauxhall Gardens. What could possibly go wrong.

Charlotte Penbury is meant to be sketching the evening’s scandals from a safe distance, not carrying tarts in a borrowed maid’s gown when a sanctimonious Member of Parliament ends up dead in the dark walks. Unfortunately for Charlotte, she has an inconveniently accurate eye, a sketchbook full of people who now matter far too much, and Sebastian Harcourt of the Home Office has noticed all three. Vauxhall would prefer a nice simple swoon. What it has is a possible murder, a missing ribbon, too many witnesses, and a government man who would very much like Charlotte to stop being helpful in quite such a thorough way.

As gossip, politics, and pleasure garden secrets collide, Charlotte must decide whether to protect her living, her aunt, and her annoyingly intriguing interrogator, or tell the whole truth and risk ending up in the caricatures herself. If she fails, the wrong person could hang, the right one could get away with it, and her own reputation will be shredded more efficiently than any print.

A clue rich, fair play mystery in a vividly drawn Regency London setting, with non gory violence and a closed door, banter heavy romance that lands in a warm, satisfying happy for now. Perfect for readers who enjoy amateur sleuths with actual jobs, Vauxhall lantern light, verbal fencing instead of sword fights, and slow burning attraction threaded through their whodunits. Settle in with your beverage of choice and step into Vauxhall Gardens; the fireworks are not the only thing about to go off.