Murder on the Royal Crescent

'A charming, beautifully crafted pastiche of the 1930s crime novels of Dorothy L Sayers and Agatha Christie' Irish Independent on D is for Death

On a frosty day in December 1936, librarian and part-time detective Dora Wildwood is summoned to Bath. She has no idea what will unfold but she is glad to go; recent events have left her longing to disappear.

Arriving on the world-famous Royal Crescent, Dora quickly learns of Daisy Palmer, whose unsolved murder looms large over the Georgian city. Daisy’s fiancé, Lord Frank Meroe, lives on as an eccentric recluse, his house full of clutter and abandoned treasures, as labyrinthine as it is magnificent.

Then, on the twentieth anniversary of Daisy’s death, murder is committed once more. As Christmas trees are lit and carol singers gather, Dora is drawn into a tangle of feuding families, suspicious antiquarian dealings and a conspicuous silence from everyone involved. For in the city of Jane Austen, loyalties run deep… and dangerously so.