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Summary
Summary
In the sobering yet hopeful years following the First World War, Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady's maid, Eva Huntford, find their summer plans marred by an instance of murder . . .
Phoebe and her sister Julia are eager for a summer getaway at High Head Lodge, the newly purchased estate of their cousin Regina. But they are not the only houseguests. Regina's odd friend, Olive, is far from friendly, and Regina's mother and brother-bitter over the unequal distribution of her father's inheritance-have descended on the house to confront Regina.
In addition to the family tension, Eva is increasingly suspicious of Lady Julia's new maid. She questions Miss Stanley's loyalty and integrity, wondering why she left her former employer so suddenly. And why does Regina seem ill at ease around the maid, as if they were previously acquainted? Everyone, it appears, is on edge.
But things go from tense to tragic when their hostess meets an untimely end-mysteriously murdered in her bed with no signs of struggle. Now, with suspects in every room, Lady Phoebe and Eva must uncover secrets hidden behind closed doors-before a killer ensures they never leave High Head Lodge . . . alive.
Reviews (2)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Maxwell's well-crafted third Lady and Lady's Maid mystery featuring Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her maid, Eva Huntford (after 2016's A Pinch of Poison), shows how class lines were blurred in post-WWI Britain. In August 1919, 20-year-old Phoebe and her elder sister, Julia, are invited by their cousin Regina Brockhurst to visit their relative's new home, High Head Lodge, and help remodel the rundown manse into what Regina vaguely describes as a "gathering place for today's enlightened intellectuals." But a confrontation ensues when Regina's mother, brother, and sister-in-law show up with a lawyer in tow. Regina's recently deceased father, Lord Mandeville, left all his money to his daughter and nothing but an empty title to his son. When someone stabs Regina to death with a hat pin, suspicion falls on the members of her immediate family, but Phoebe and Eva soon discover that others stood to gain from Regina's demise. Maxwell artfully portrays the personal dynamics of English society at the time, and readers will hope to see more of the endearing Phoebe and Eva. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Money may be the root of all evil, but is it the motive for murder?Julia and Phoebe Renshaw know they must make wealthy marriages to keep the estate of the Earl of Wroxley afloat. But duty is rubbing up against love, especially for Julia, the beautiful elder daughter enamored of a nobleman whose estate is near ruin. The daughters have been invited to visit their cousin Regina Brockhurst, who's just purchased a home with the money she inherited from her fathermuch to the dismay of her mother, Lady Mandeville, her brother, Hastings, and his wife, Verna, who were left with little to support their pretensions. Phoebe's trusted maid, Eva, and Julia's sulky new maid, Miss Myra Stanley, are greeted by Regina's dear friend Olive Asquith, whom they take for an upper-level servant. But it's not so: Regina and Olive are making do with only a cook and her helper. Regina is mysterious about her plans for her new home, and when her unhappy relatives arrive with the family lawyer, they immediately accuse her of killing her father. The fog of enmity thickens when Regina is found dead in her bed, stabbed with the dowager's hatpin. Phoebe and Eva, no strangers to crime-solving (A Pinch of Poison, 2016, etc.), know that the investigation will mostly be in the hands of Eva's love, Constable Miles Brannock. Regina's family would prefer to believe she was killed by Olive, an apparent outsider whose socialist tendencies belie her wealthy background. As they watch the family's feeble gestures of mourningHastings floats around in what appears to be a whiskey-induced stupor, while his mother and wife shed no tears for Reginathe two sleuths devise a clever plan to catch the killer.An unusual twist rooted in the recent horrors of World War I adds interest to a typical country-house mystery. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.