Conversational Lies — Jennifer A. Girardin

Crime is always at home in the cozy English village of Halfereton...where every mystery just happens to drop in for tea! As the Moriston House Mystery Society contemplates the perfect English crime, they are interrupted in their cozy conference by the discovery of the death of local nobody Bernard Alton, a retired local businessman with a gloriously empty past. Suspicion immediately falls upon the mousy maid, Eleanor Norton, who had every reason to have committed the crime, and who would have inherited the Alton's mysterious home, Hazelwood Cottage. Clues abound in the form of friendly blackmail letters, delightful death threats, and a colorful canvas of unreliable witnesses, and when a murder weapon is found at the Lodge of Moriston House, Lord Hugo Anstead and his sleuthing companions are cordially invited to solve the crime. Local journalist and queen of crime Marjorie Branell-Markson is convinced that the crimes were committed by the Alton's waxy nephew, Raymond Wilde, whose penchant for cocktails in the morning and philandering in the afternoon adds a little cream to the crime. And when poisonous petunia Joan Alton is murdered before Christmas, no one in the gossipy English village of Halfereton is the least surprised. A collection of ready suspects ring a jolly tune, including arty hanger-on Ann Harmon, local perfectionist Frederick Caldwell, social wallflower Claudia Morris, and flighty Bernadette Collier, who all have a tendency of lying through their teeth. And when the strange suspects are attacked without rhyme or reason, Lord Hugo must match wits against a cunning murderer...and discover the truth among a pack of dangerous little lies. Join us for the Moriston House Mystery Series.... where classic crime is always at home!