Getrude Pennyfather, American heiress and folklore enthusiast, is set to enjoy the perfect English village wedding.
Even King Edward VII is due to attend.
What more could a society bride dream of?
For as she arrives in Frimhurst, Gertrude believes that her fiancé, Arthur Montfoy, is the lord of the manor and the joyful celebrations of the local folk seem to confirm this. Indeed, everything about Frimurst seems picture-perfect.
Perhaps a bit too perfect…
For as time goes by and her wedding approaches, Gertrude realises that not everything in Frimhurst is as it seems. Does that include her husband-to-be, and the wonderful future she has planned for them?
Meanwhile a renowned French chef, and distant relative of the King by marriage, is working hard to produce the perfect wedding banquet, at the King’s command. August Didier is a master of his craft, and his focus is such that little distracts him from his enormous task.
Until, that is, he spots a familiar face among the wedding guests. The face of a man who has sworn to murder him.
Very shortly afterwards, the body of a murder victim is discovered, but it is not Auguste – for now, at least. The death brings Scotland Yard to the scene, and Auguste is reunited with his friend, Inspector Rose.
Can they work together to find the killer?
As the men investigate, the bucolic façade that Frimhurst has produced for the wedding is stripped away to reveal lies, frustrated loves, tales of financial ruin and rampant dishonesty.
Auguste Didier and Inspector Rose have just a short time to find out the truth. For death is closing in on Auguste — will the murders be solved in time for him to outwit it?
Only time will tell…
Murder with Majesty * is a delightful mystery, perfect for fans of Agatha Christie.
Praise for Amy Myers
‘Reading like a cross between Hercule Poirot and Mrs Beeton…this feast of entertainment is packed with splendid late-Victorian detail’ - Library Journal
Amy Myers was born in Kent, where she still lives, although she has now ventured to the far side of the Medway. For many years a director of a London publishing company, she is now a full-time writer. Married to an American, she lived for some years in Paris, where, surrounded by food, she first dreamed up her Victorian chef detective Auguste Didier. Currently she is writing her contemporary crime series starring Jack Colby, car detective, and in between his adventures continuing her Marsh & Daughter * series and her Victorian chimney sweep Tom Wasp novels*.
Description:
Spring of 1905.
Getrude Pennyfather, American heiress and folklore enthusiast, is set to enjoy the perfect English village wedding.
Even King Edward VII is due to attend.
What more could a society bride dream of?
For as she arrives in Frimhurst, Gertrude believes that her fiancé, Arthur Montfoy, is the lord of the manor and the joyful celebrations of the local folk seem to confirm this. Indeed, everything about Frimurst seems picture-perfect.
Perhaps a bit too perfect…
For as time goes by and her wedding approaches, Gertrude realises that not everything in Frimhurst is as it seems. Does that include her husband-to-be, and the wonderful future she has planned for them?
Meanwhile a renowned French chef, and distant relative of the King by marriage, is working hard to produce the perfect wedding banquet, at the King’s command. August Didier is a master of his craft, and his focus is such that little distracts him from his enormous task.
Until, that is, he spots a familiar face among the wedding guests. The face of a man who has sworn to murder him.
Very shortly afterwards, the body of a murder victim is discovered, but it is not Auguste – for now, at least. The death brings Scotland Yard to the scene, and Auguste is reunited with his friend, Inspector Rose.
Can they work together to find the killer?
As the men investigate, the bucolic façade that Frimhurst has produced for the wedding is stripped away to reveal lies, frustrated loves, tales of financial ruin and rampant dishonesty.
Auguste Didier and Inspector Rose have just a short time to find out the truth. For death is closing in on Auguste — will the murders be solved in time for him to outwit it?
Only time will tell…
Praise for Amy Myers
‘Reading like a cross between Hercule Poirot and Mrs Beeton…this feast of entertainment is packed with splendid late-Victorian detail’ - Library Journal
Amy Myers was born in Kent, where she still lives, although she has now ventured to the far side of the Medway. For many years a director of a London publishing company, she is now a full-time writer. Married to an American, she lived for some years in Paris, where, surrounded by food, she first dreamed up her Victorian chef detective Auguste Didier. Currently she is writing her contemporary crime series starring Jack Colby, car detective, and in between his adventures continuing her Marsh & Daughter * series and her Victorian chimney sweep Tom Wasp novels*.
**
From Kirkus Reviews
Most historians think King Edward VII spent May Day 1905 in Paris, but Myers explains his impatience with the press's attentiveness to his whereabouts by whisking him away to Farthing Court in Kent to attend the wedding of Lord Arthur Montfoy to American soft-drink heiress Gertrude Pennyfather. The King's presence isn't the only secret behind the wedding, either. The bride doesn't know that her penniless bridegroom has sold his estate to wealthy squire Thomas Entwhistle. Nor does anyone in the wedding party know that Entwhistle is really Pyotr Gregorin, a Tsarist assassin sworn to kill his niece's husband, master chef Auguste Didierthough Didier, dragged along to cook for the King (still another secret, since his royal connections have obliged him to give up his art), certainly tries hard enough to persuade His Majesty and Chief Inspector Egbert Rose that Entwhistle is really Gregorin. In fact, Farthing Court is awash in so many other secretsdiscarded royal mistresses, unsuccessful suitors, jewel thefts, nocturnal scamperingsthat it's a relief when a murder, decked out in the trappings of a spurious local legend, finally (finally!) puts paid to the idea of an uneventful honeymoon for the nuptial pair. Overstuffed period folderol from a veteran (Murder in the Smokehouse, 1997, etc.) who deserves her audience's thanks for reminding them how much Merrie England bric-a-brac was sentimental claptrap from the beginning. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.