Murder, Suffragettes, and the Risk of Unflattering Photographs

A Cozy Edwardian Mystery of Love and Murder

By: Marisa Paxon

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

I’m the narrator of this book, which means I’ve already hauled everyone through every damp plank, every polite insult, and every self important man who thought electricity was beneath him. Now, apparently, I’m meant to sell it as well, because “they” are nothing if not ambitious with other people’s labour.

Welcome to Westcliff, a seaside town clinging to respectability with both hands while the Majestic Pier flirts shamelessly with modern electric light, suffragette banners, and a charity tableau designed to make everyone feel noble and look expensive. Edith Fairleigh arrives to write a jaunty little feature for a London newspaper; naturally, she instead finds a photographic studio, a patroness with a hat full of authority, and a proprietor in mourning who smiles like a man used to applauses and invoices. What could possibly go wrong, besides everything?

For a start, Hubert Carstairs, local investor and professional bully, ends the evening dead beneath the pier, lit in cruel little pools of new brilliance, with a suspicious mark and an entire town suddenly remembering it has opinions. A photographic plate goes missing, witnesses queue up to improve their stories, and the inquest looms with all the warmth of a wet overcoat. Edith, being inconveniently observant, teams up with Crispin Marwood to follow the clues through back rooms, committee meetings, and the dark spaces between those reassuring bulbs, because someone was tampering with more than reputations.

If she fails, Edith loses the story, her editor’s patience, and any chance of being taken seriously as more than a novelty with a notebook; Crispin loses his pier, his precarious future, and the last scraps of control over a place that eats secrets for breakfast.

Perfect for readers who want Edwardian seaside scandal, suffragettes with sharp tongues, clue rich investigations, and a slow, prickly attraction that behaves itself in public, mostly.

Expect a cozy, non gory mystery with a satisfying, logical reveal, plus a closed door slow burn romance with a hopeful HFN, all in a complete stand alone case you can start right here. Go on then, click Look Inside, I’ve already survived the whole affair, you might as well enjoy the best bits.