A Deadly Endowment

October 1, 2021
A scheme to help support an entrenched English estate goes fatally awry. Now that World War I has upended the assumption of the English aristocracy, Phoebe Renshaw of Foxwood Hall has convinced her conservative grandparents, Lord and Lady Wroxly, to give house tours in the hope of boosting their faltering bottom line. The first tour group consists of village schoolchildren and members of the Greater Gloucestershire Historical Society. Lady Phoebe and Eva Huntford, her maid and confidante, soon find it difficult to keep the group together and are annoyed by snarky comments and people slipping away. When putative historical society author Arvina Bell is found strangled in the library, the lazy chief inspector ends up arresting her son, but Phoebe and Eva, who've had much experience of murder, are far from convinced that he's the guilty party. Luckily, Eva's boyfriend, constable Miles Brannock, is on their side when the murder of another historical society member confirms their suspicion that some sleuthing is in order. After a picture is stolen from the house and Phoebe's Grams is attacked, Phoebe wonders how much she should credit rumors that a treasure's been hidden in Foxwood Hall. Questioning members of the historical society reveals that all is not well among the group, and many secrets emerge--but which of them is worth killing for? Beneath all the red herrings is an appealingly perceptive look at England between the wars.

COPYRIGHT(2021) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

November 1, 2021
Agatha Christie meets Downton Abbey in Maxwell’s pleasantly diverting seventh Lady and Lady’s Maid Mystery (after 2021’s A Sinister Service). After the depredations of WWI, Lady Phoebe Renshaw’s grandfather, the Earl of Wroxly, is badly in need of cash to maintain Foxwood Hall, the family estate, so to generate income, Lady Phoebe suggests her grandparents open the house to guided tours. Phoebe conducts her first tour for a gaggle of schoolchildren and members of the local historical society, but things go awry when one of the adults, Arvina Bell, wanders off and ends up dead in the library, strangled with a curtain tie. Only one thing is missing—an old family photograph. Does the photo hold a clue to why Mrs. Bell was killed? Phoebe and her lady’s maid, the intrepid Eva Huntford, uncover plots and motives galore among the historical society members. Maxwell brings it all to the table: colorful characters, a charming Cotswold setting, lots of suspects, a dismissive chief inspector and his kind subordinate, plucky ladies who are smarter than the police, a hidden treasure, and a hint of romance. This is an exemplary cozy. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency.