To Die Like a Gentleman — Bernard Bastable

In 1842, the young Queen Victoria is on the throne, and the landed gentry is in its prime. At Elmstead Court, Sir Richard Hudson rules his household with a subtle tyranny.
Despite simmering tensions, Miss Frances Weyland is impressed by the warmth of her welcome when she arrives to take up her position as governess to the Hudson daughters. Only one person unsettles her: Sir Richard's manservant, Joseph, who seems to wield a sinister influence at Elmstead Court.
In her innocence, Frances does not suspect the complex plots being hatched around her. But the situation is sliding rapidly toward murder as hidden passions and rivalries threaten to crack the surface of this seemingly proper Victorian household.
Told with secret diaries and confessional letters, To Die Like a Gentleman is a completely original historical whodunit, with all the wit and intelligence that countless readers have come to expect from the work of Robert Barnard.