Lady and Lady's Maid #07: A Deadly Endowment

- Blurb -

Set among the landed gentry of post-WWI England and perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, Alyssa Maxwell' s latest historical mystery finds sleuthing duo Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady' s maid, Eva Huntford, hunting a killer after the decision to open Foxwood Hall for guided tours turns deadly. . . To make ends meet, Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady' s maid, Eva Huntford, have decided to open up Foxwood Hall to guided public tours. Not everyone is pleased about it-even to the point of committing murder. . . The lean times following the Great War continue to require creative solutions for England' s noble class. But Lady Phoebe' s proposal to open up the Renshaw estate to guided tours for additional income strikes many in the family as a "vulgar enterprise. " Phoebe' s grandfather, the Earl of Wroxly, however, reluctantly concedes the necessity. Their first tour group consists of members of the Historical Society, a magazine writer, and a flock of students. It' s a large group for Phoebe, her sister Amelia, and Eva to manage, and when the widow Arvina Bell goes missing, Eva goes in search of her-only to find her in the library, strangled with a silken drapery cord. The schoolchildren are promptly sent home, but the members of the Historical Society-many of whom also wandered off at times-remain for interrogation. There is also, curiously, a framed photo missing from the library. As the police hastily zero in on a suspect, Phoebe and Eva weigh the clues. Does the crime have to do with rumors of hidden treasure at Foxwood Hall? But they must make haste to solve the widow' s murder-before someone else becomes history. . .