A Spot of Murder in Mayfair

A Cozy Regency Mystery of Love and Murder

I am the narrator of this book, which means I have already carried an entire Mayfair Season, three dozen teacups, and one extremely rude corpse across the page, and now they have decided I must also persuade you to join the mess. Fine. Come in, mind the carpet.

In A Spot of Murder in Mayfair, Lady Helena Foxe is supposed to be doing what well bred young ladies do best, namely, smiling politely while other people ruin their own lives in whispers. Instead, a tired clerk with ink on his finger and trouble in his wake collapses in her family’s drawing room, leaving blood in the wool and questions in the air. Naturally, everyone immediately insists there is “nothing to tell”, because Mayfair prefers its scandals properly folded and put away.

Then Helena receives a note that does not bother with poetry: LADY HELENA FOXE - THREAT. TO BE HANDLED. Which is rather an overreaction to a woman with a ledger and opinions, but I have learned that people who profit from secrets are terribly sensitive about being noticed.

Enter Mr Elias Grant of Bow Street, a man with a plain coat, an unforgiving gaze, and the unfortunate habit of arriving precisely when respectable households would prefer to pretend they have never heard of crime. Helena offers him what he cannot purchase with warrants, a front row seat at the tea tables where everyone is terrified of their own handwriting, and she takes what she cannot get from her mother, the truth, in instalments. Together they follow the trail of letters, payments, and carefully managed panic through Mayfair’s drawing rooms, because it turns out half the neighbourhood has been renting silence, and someone has decided the clerk who carried it all was… disposable.

Perfect for readers who like Regency intrigue, knife sharp dialogue, tea table eavesdropping, blackmail fueled motive, an observant heroine who refuses to be treated as furniture, and a vexingly competent Bow Street hero who discovers that courtship is considerably more dangerous than a magistrate.

Expect a clue rich, satisfying, logical mystery with non gory violence, plus a closed door slow burn romance with an HFN, all wrapped up in a complete, stand alone case you can start right here. Now, if you please, click Look Inside and try not to spill anything, the carpets have suffered enough.