A Pinch of Poison
(Libby/OverDrive eBook, Kindle)

Phoebe Renshaw's grandmother is on the board of a school for girls in 1919 England. After the headmistress, Miss Finch, collapses at a luncheon, the students and staff are shocked to learn she was poisoned by cyanide after eating a slice of Madeira cake. Phoebe and her lady's maid, Eva, begin investigating. They learn that the assistant headmistress didn't approve of Miss Finch's progressive views on education. Then there is the mentally disabled young handyman who acts erratically and is arrested for attacking a curate. Eva begins to make sense of the handyman's ramblings and realizes he may be connected to Miss Finch. Along with a bracing mystery, Maxwell explores compelling themes concerning the effects of war, from a nurse suffering from PTSD to drug addiction. Although this is from a slightly earlier time period, it's a good match with Rhys Bowen's Her Royal Spyness series.--Alessio, Amy Copyright 2017 Booklist

Maxwell's middling second Lady and Lady's Maid mystery (after 2015's Murder Most Malicious) centers on Lady Phoebe Renshaw's alma mater, the Haverleigh School for Young Ladies, in the Cotswolds. In the spring of 1919, 20-year-old Phoebe organizes a luncheon at the school to benefit needy Great War veterans and their families. Tragically, the miniature cake specially made for headmistress Henrietta Finch is laced with cyanide. When Constable Miles Brannock urges Phoebe and her maid, Eva Huntsford (herself once a Haverleigh scholarship student), to interview students and staff, they find motives aplenty for Finch's murder. Her progressive philosophy has ruffled feathers, a grading scandal is brewing, and the school's nurse and handyman hide secrets. Maxwell leaves the two protagonists' budding romances intriguingly unresolved. But with a surfeit of minor characters hastily introduced at the start and a crime that has no personal stakes for the sleuths, the noticeable similarities to TV's Downton Abbey don't extend to taut or emotionally charged drama. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

A titled lady and her maid work to solve a murder at a girls school.World War I has come to an end, but life in England continues to change in many ways. Phoebe Renshaw, granddaughter of the Earl of Wroxly, wants more than the rich husband that still seems to be the limit of her older sister Julias ambition. In collecting items useful to returned veterans and their families, Phoebes been helped by the students at the Haverleigh School for Young Ladies, where her younger sister, Lady Amelia, is a pupil. When the headmistress, Miss Finch, drops dead over her cup of tea, chaos ensues. Luckily, Phoebe and Eva Huntford, the ladys maid the three sisters share, are on hand to quell the panic until the police arrive. Constable Brannock and his remote chief inspector at first dismiss the incident as an accidental poisoning, but, later, the constable suspects cyanide. Miss Finch alone had been served a cake supposedly made especially for her by haughty Lady Zara, who looks down on many of her fellow students, especially the scholarship girls. Brannock, who recalls how well Phoebe and Eva worked together solving another mystery (Murder Most Malicious, 2015), is eager to benefit from their inside knowledge this time. Verity Sedgewick not only wanted Miss Finchs job, but is suspiciously well-dressed for an assistant headmistress; the school nurses wartime service includes a legacy of PTSD; the garden boy is hiding secrets; and Miss Finch herself had changed Lady Zaras marks to high ones even though everyone knew she did the least amount of work possible. The unlikely sleuthing duo uses information from both upstairs and downstairs to solve the case. Colorful information on the postwar period is combined with plenty of suspects, all neatly wrapped up in the style of a classic mystery. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Phoebe Renshaw's grandmother is on the board of a school for girls in 1919 England. After the headmistress, Miss Finch, collapses at a luncheon, the students and staff are shocked to learn she was poisoned by cyanide after eating a slice of Madeira cake. Phoebe and her lady's maid, Eva, begin investigating. They learn that the assistant headmistress didn't approve of Miss Finch's progressive views on education. Then there is the mentally disabled young handyman who acts erratically and is arrested for attacking a curate. Eva begins to make sense of the handyman's ramblings and realizes he may be connected to Miss Finch. Along with a bracing mystery, Maxwell explores compelling themes concerning the effects of war, from a nurse suffering from PTSD to drug addiction. Although this is from a slightly earlier time period, it's a good match with Rhys Bowen's Her Royal Spyness series. Copyright 2017 Booklist Reviews.

Maxwell's middling second Lady and Lady's Maid mystery (after 2015's Murder Most Malicious) centers on Lady Phoebe Renshaw's alma mater, the Haverleigh School for Young Ladies, in the Cotswolds. In the spring of 1919, 20-year-old Phoebe organizes a luncheon at the school to benefit needy Great War veterans and their families. Tragically, the miniature cake specially made for headmistress Henrietta Finch is laced with cyanide. When Constable Miles Brannock urges Phoebe and her maid, Eva Huntsford (herself once a Haverleigh scholarship student), to interview students and staff, they find motives aplenty for Finch's murder. Her progressive philosophy has ruffled feathers, a grading scandal is brewing, and the school's nurse and handyman hide secrets. Maxwell leaves the two protagonists' budding romances intriguingly unresolved. But with a surfeit of minor characters hastily introduced at the start and a crime that has no personal stakes for the sleuths, the noticeable similarities to TV's Downton Abbey don't extend to taut or emotionally charged drama. Agent: Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. (Jan.) Copyright 2016 Publisher Weekly.