Shooting the Proverbial Bird — Julie Murphy

Shooting the Proverbial Bird has all the qualities that a great mystery should have, bizarre characters, emotional richness, and an ending that will surprise the reader. The Baron of Tweedmouth is found in his nightclothes underneath his bedroom balcony. His asthma is conveniently blamed. Except...the newly-minted Baron told the Countess of York to confess her sins of marital infidelity...over dessert. Seriously, all knew that he wouldn't last. How easy to kill an ill man. Who felt entitled to "shoot" the proverbial bird? It could have been Lord Haversack over a Scottish land rights feud, or Tweedmouth's forgotten wife. According to her husband, that lady has all the vanities of Eve. Knowing the Baron's tender, closeted son, Eleanor Albright is worried that the young man has reached his breaking point. As a chemist, Lady Eleanor knows poisons. To help her friend, she must brave her social-climbing Irish mother, backbiting neighbors, a woman-hating chief constable, her I-can't-believe-I-had-sex-with-my-brothel-loving husband...and her own doubts. Set in Britain but with Irish overtones, Shooting the Proverbial Bird has an Edwardian spirit and is full of, from Downton Abbey, the Dowager Countess Crawley's sense of fun and humor.