Murder at the Marlowe Club (The Milliner Mysteries)
Historical Cozy Mystery
2nd in Series
Publisher: JDP Press (February 24, 2020)
Print Length: 209 pages

Synopsis

A corpse in a corset. A dangerous gambling den. A perilous path between safety and peril.

London, 1905. Leading milliner Emily Gates’ illegal shortcut through a private park in the rain brought her straight to a scantily clothed corpse. Then her route took her straight into the hands of the indefatigable Lady Kaldaire, who recognized the body as a relative of her longtime friend, the Duchess of Wallingford. Lady Kaldaire blackmailed Emily before to find Lord Kaldaire’s killer. Why not this murderer, too?

Emily has plenty of reasons why not, but finding links between her father’s nefarious family of crooks and conmen and the debauchery of the secretive Marlowe Club involves her in the investigation led by the handsome Inspector Russell of Scotland Yard. Emily discovers more than she expects about the licentious world of the corpse through her aristocratic customers, including Georgia, heroine of the Victorian Bookshop Mysteries, now the Duchess of Blackford.

Are the scandal rags correct, or has the victim been maligned by a mastermind who’ll stop at nothing to gain everything?

This is a historical cozy mystery with no graphic violence, sex, or foul language. Just exciting action, mysterious events, and surprising endings.

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Guest Post

Kate Parker found this letter of Lady Kaldaire’s in her morning room and copied it for your enjoyment. Kate’s newest story is Murder at the Marlowe Club.

London, 1905

My dearest Helene,

It seems an age, dear cousin, between letters, but I was overjoyed to receive your latest news. I’m glad to learn that your grandson’s pneumonia has finally cleared. From what you have told me about Ontario winters, I’m surprised the rest of you aren’t ill as well. I traveled to Scotland ten years ago, and I’m still recovering from the shock. I’m perfectly happy to stay in London and let the rest of you travel to the Empire.

The flowers are just beginning to break through the beds and I can see buds on the tree branches in the parks. We’ve had beastly amounts of rain, but it will serve to give us a beautiful spring.

With the warmer weather has come a most perplexing problem. Do you remember my friend Lulu from our days on the Grand Tour? You may recall she’s the Duchess of Wallingford now. Well, her second son’s wife, Lady Theo Hughes, was found a few days ago in the park with her neck slit. It was most surprising since she was found in a rather garish corset and a cape. No shoes, stockings, or jewelry.

The lucky things is, she was found by my milliner, Emily Gates. You’ve heard me speak of her before. She found Horace after he’d been attacked in his study. That was the first time I’d spoken more than a dozen words to her, although when you find someone burgling your home who was considerate enough to summon help for poor Horace, you tend to speak although we’d never been formally introduced.

That night was when I learned Emily is the daughter and granddaughter of notorious criminals. As a child, she learned to pick locks and burgle homes and find hidden compartments. That was how she broke into Kaldaire House. Of course, I was shocked, but I also saw how her talents could be used to help solve Horace’s murder. And they did.

So now I’ve recruited Emily to help me discover who killed poor Lady Theo, scandalous woman that she is. Lady Theo, not Emily, who is the pinnacle of discretion despite her unfortunate family. It’s very simple, really. I’m the only one of her clients who knows about her family line, and she has many customers who would leave her and never return if they knew. Some aristocrats are such snobs, even concerning their tradespeople.

When I threatened to tell everyone about the criminals in her family, Emily had no choice but to help find the killer. Now Helene, I can hear you across the ocean calling me cruel. Perhaps, but it is the fastest way to convince the child to do what she must. She is a child, perhaps in her mid-twenties, and quite lovely, but stubborn. It is her duty to use her considerable skills to see a wrong is righted, as we all must.

Emily is what is best in our nation. She just needs a little incentive to see things my way. I can hear you now, Helene. Don’t be like that. I am, as always, right.

Affectionately,

Your loving cousin,

Roberta, Lady Kaldaire

About the Author

Kate Parker grew up reading her mother’s collection of mystery books and her father’s library of history and biography books. Now she can’t write a story that isn’t set in the past with a few decent corpses littered about.

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