Murder, Mince Pies, and Other Acceptable Christmas Expenses

A Cozy Regency Mystery of Love and Murder

Christmas at the London Foundling Hospital was meant to produce warm feelings and acceptable expenses, not a treasurer lying dead beside the subscription ledger in a locked committee room. When the key is still in the inner lock and the floor is spattered in something that is definitely not ink, polite society would very much like to look away. Unfortunately for them, Lady Arabella St Clair has a head for accounts and an inconvenient conscience.

Newly widowed and fiercely practical, Arabella has two sacred beliefs: sums should add up, and children should not pay for gentlemen’s broken promises. When irregular figures in the hospital books turn into a locked room Christmas murder, she finds herself drafted as an unpaid observer by Lord Percival Wroth, a disturbingly self possessed marquess with a Home Office badge and no patience for flattering lies. Between carols, candlelight, and collectors of both debts and gossip, Arabella must follow the money, read the room, and decide who is worth saving. If she fails, the hospital could collapse, reputations will go under with it, and her own hard won independence will be the easiest thing to sacrifice.

Perfect for readers who love cozy historical Regency mystery romance, sharp tongued heroines, locked room puzzles, and slow burn partnerships built on banter, ledgers, and mutual exasperation. Expect a fair play mystery with a closed door slow burn romance and a happy for now ending, murder off the page, and humour dry enough to curdle the cream. Curl up, click inside, and let Christmas charity do its worst.