Murder at Merry Beggars Hall
By (Author) Kay Blythe
Bedford Square Publishers
Bedford Square Publishers
4th June 2025
27th February 2025
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Historical crime and mysteries
Crime and mystery: cosy mystery
Comic (humorous) crime and mystery
Crime and mystery: women sleuths
823.92
Paperback
336
Width 129mm, Height 198mm
Jemima Flowerday combines her skills as a dressmaker and sleuth to solve crime in the crumbling stately homes of 1920s Britain.
December 1922, and society dressmaker Jemima Flowerday receives a letter from Lady Hamlash of Merry Beggars Hall, requesting three new gowns for the Christmas season. Lady Hamlash does not travel, so Jemima will need to visit the Hall in deepest Suffolk to work in situ.
The commission appeals to Jemima for more than one reason. It will bring her some much-needed income. More interestingly, the remote manor house was the scene of a grisly murder earlier that year, when Lady Hamlash, inspecting her plants in the walled garden, found a mans severed head beneath a terracotta asparagus cloche.
The murder was never solved.
Jemima, addicted to mystery novels and with a proud history of solving crimes in her own world, is sure she can crack the case. That ambition becomes a little more complicated when, within hours of her arrival at Merry Beggars Hall, the household cook dies in front of her
Kay Blythe, who also writes as Natalie Meg Evans, is an award-winning historical author on both sides of the Atlantic, having reached the New York Times top 100 list with her debut novel, The Dress Thief. Writing crime as Kay Blythe fulfils a long-held ambition.