Cozy Historical Fiction

It's 1763. Career diplomat Alec Halsey returns to London and the shocking news his estranged elder brother, the Earl of Delvin, has not only killed his friend in a duel but become engaged to the woman he had hoped to marry. When Alec reluctantly attends a weekend house party to celebrate his brother's engagement he gets more than he bargained for when a lady's maid is murdered, the bride-to-be is attacked, and a guest is shot dead.

England, 1925. When a strange young woman is found murdered on the grounds of Unsworth Castle, the duke and his family are astounded at first, but quickly become enraged when the police begin asking all sorts of impertinent questions. And when suspicions dare to fall on one of their own, it is up to Mr. Quayle, Lord Unsworth's exceedingly efficient secretary, to find the true culprit and save the House of Unsworth from scandal and ruin.

In a beautiful Belgravia house, Dowager Countess Georgiana intends to celebrate her son's birthday—delightful festivities are planned. Lord Stokely has a different agenda for the occasion, one concerning governance, politics, and the seizing of power. Burgoyne's Agency has yet a third and very dangerous design for the evening—the toppling of Britain's foremost charismatic personality and most photogenic peer—Stokely. Outside of Belgravia, Britain is in a turbulent state.

Holly Miller and her grandmother, Oma, are working their tails off to prepare the Sugar Maple Inn for an upcoming matchmaking event for pet owners. While Holly has no interest in pairing up, Oma plans on playing Cupid and finding someone to warm her reluctant granddaughter's heart. Unfortunately, one man Holly does meet is cold - dead cold - and he has a personal letter from Oma in his pocket.

England, 1924. Lady Adelaide Compton has recently (and satisfactorily) interred her husband, Major Rupert Charles Cressleigh Compton, hero of the Somme, in the family vault in the village churchyard. Rupert died by smashing his Hispano-Suiza on a Cotswold country road while carrying a French mademoiselle in the passenger seat. With the house now Addie's, needed improvements in hand, and a weekend house party underway, how inconvenient of Rupert to turn up - not in the flesh, but as a spirit! Rupert has to perform a few good deeds before becoming welcomed to heaven.

When Harry and Kat head south to the French Riviera, they look forward to dazzling parties, a shimmering sea, and wonderful food. But once they step off the legendary Paris-Nice train, Le Train Bleu, things start to be anything but restful. Asked to assist in a dangerous case of blackmail - they soon find that the streets and alleyways of the Cote d'Azur hide not only cafes and bistros ... but also secrets and danger of a most deadly sort.

Mirabelle Daws traveled all the way from Australia to Sheridan Square to visit her sister - only to die in the middle of a locked garden. All the residents of Sheridan Square have a key to the garden - but no one seemed to know that Mirabelle was planning to arrive. So the question facing Mrs. Jeffries is: Who wanted to make sure that Mirabelle's visit was very, very short-lived?

England, December 1927. Arrogant Edward Linton has returned from years of living in Paris. But has he changed? Because, if not, the consequences for him might be deadly. When Mrs. Kate Forbes and her academically minded niece, Lady Jane Scott. are invited to a gathering at Linton Hall, the last thing they expect is to become amateur sleuths pitting their wits against Inspector Ridley of Scotland Yard to solve a shocking murder. Faced with an ensemble of social climbers, eccentrics, and schemers, our daring duo must untangle a web of secrets, lies and deceit if they're to discover whodunnit.

England, 1922. After their adventures at Westminster, Dora and Rex depart for a quiet month in the Cotswolds. Or at least, that's what everyone thinks. In truth, they're working on a new assignment—investigating rumors that a titled foreigner might be more than he appears. Rex invites the man to his family manor for a rollicking weekend of fun. In between bouts of lawn tennis and parlor games, he and Dora are to uncover the truth about the man's identity. The servants barely have time to unpack everyone's case before the suspected spy is found with an antique dagger sticking from his back.

The best of the golden age crime writers, praised by all the top modern writers in the field including P. D. James and Ruth Rendell, Dorothy L. Sayers created the immortal Lord Peter Wimsey. His second appearance is a thrilling quest to save his own brother - the Duke of Denver - from the hangman. The Duke of Denver, accused of murder, stands trial for his life in the House of Lords. Naturally, his brother Lord Peter Wimsey is investigating the crime - this is a family affair.

It's the 1930s, and a mysterious illness is spreading over Scotland. But the noble and ancient family of Inverkillen, residents of Loch Down Abbey, are much more concerned with dwindling toilet roll supplies and who will look after the children now that Nanny has regretfully (and most inconveniently) departed this life. Then Lord Inverkillen, earl and head of the family, is found dead in mysterious circumstances. The inspector declares it an accident but Mrs MacBain, the head housekeeper, isn't so convinced.

There's a new man in charge at Bow Street Magistrates' Court and all is not well. His ambition is to split up Lavender and Woods—and to add to Lavender's woes, someone is leaking exaggerated stories about his investigations to The Times. Lavender is tasked with solving the theft of an aristocrat's precious jewels, while Woods is instructed to track down a libeler. But after a series of vicious murders and surprising coincidences, they discover that these apparently unconnected crimes have more in common than they could ever have imagined.

Olive and Jasper have never been closer—except for one thing. Jasper is still reticent about his frequent disappearances from polite society. With the holidays approaching and no paying client on the books, Olive decides to shadow Jasper when he’s unexpectedly called away. Her search brings her to Holly Hill Lodge where an eclectic group has gathered to celebrate an old-fashioned English Christmas. When the butler goes missing, Olive and Jasper must work together to solve the Christmas crime—as well as the secret Jasper hides.

Emily and Colin Hargreaves make it a rule to spend as little time as possible with her parents in Kent, but are unable to refuse Lady Catherine Bromley’s invitation to join them for a pre-Christmas party that includes the family of Ala Kapur Singh, a powerful Punjabi maharaja who has come to England after receiving the Order of the Star of India.

Dense fog masks foul play in the streets of London, as Ann Granger brings us her seventh Victorian mystery featuring Scotland Yard's Inspector Ben Ross and his wife, Lizzie. It is March 1870. London is in the grip of fog and ice. But Scotland Yard's Inspector Ben Ross has more than the weather to worry about when the body of a young woman is found in a dustbin at the back of a Piccadilly restaurant.

Katherine Brooke may be a fabulously wealthy heiress, but she’s trapped, a pawn in her parents’ ruthless game to marry her into the nobility. Then Captain Hugo Penhallow - so charming, as handsome as a Greek god - comes into her life once more, and suddenly she sees a chance to be free.

It's 1924, and war-widow fashionista Ginger Gold's new Regent Street dress shop, Feathers & Flair, is the talk of the London fashion district, attracting aristocrats from Paris to Berlin to Moscow. Ginger is offered her first job as a private detective when her sister-in-law's stage actor friend goes missing, and though the dress shop takes most of her time, Ginger takes the case. But when a Russian grand duchess dies at the shop's official grand opening event, Ginger ignores the missing person to chase a killer. It's a decision she will live to regret.

On a quest to distract her lifelong friend Jeremy from his recent heartbreak, Lady Emily organizes a holiday in Greece. As a lover of all things Greek, she quickly finds herself occupied with tours of ancient ruins, lively debates with Margaret, a devoted Latinist, and slightly more scandalous endeavors with her dashing husband, Colin Hargreaves. But the pleasantries are brought to an abrupt halt when a man long believed dead greets the party at their island villa. Lord Philip Ashton, Colin's childhood best friend and Emily's first husband, has returned.

In the quaint village of Birdswing, the winter of 1939 is bitterly cold. Still haunted by his ex-wife’s murder and eager to contact the Fenton House ghost, Ben enlists Lady Juliet in an amateur séance. But the surprise return of Juliet’s rogue husband, Ethan, upends her life, setting tongues wagging. While she fights to make him sign divorce papers, a bloodless, naked corpse confronts Ben. The murdered man, handsome but uneducated and known to make passes at all things female, is discovered in an oh-so-proper estate.

After the final curtain of Swan Lake, an animated crowd exits the Mariinsky theatre brimming with excitement from the night's performance. But outside, the scene is somber. A ballerina's body lies face down in the snow, blood splattered like rose petals over the costume of the Swan Queen. The crowd is silenced by a single cry - "Nemetseva is dead!" When the dead ballerina's aristocratic lover comes begging for justice, Emily must apply her own set of skills to discover the rising star's murderer.