Death at the Manor

Starred review from June 13, 2022
Schellman’s excellent third Regency mystery featuring widow Lily Adler (after 2021’s Silence in the Library) takes Lily from London to Hampshire for an extended stay with an aunt, Eliza Pierce. Eliza’s village is buzzing about the gray-garbed female ghost said to haunt Belleford, the derelict manor owned by the Wright family. Thomas Wright, a restless bachelor who lives with his sister, Selina, under their widowed mother’s thumb, relishes the attention the veiled specter commands. While Thomas gives Lily a tour of the ghost’s usual haunts, Selina discovers their mother dead in her bedroom. Mrs. Wright’s bruised chest and agonized expression indicate foul play, but her room was locked from the inside with the only existing key. Unlike the Wrights and the villagers, rational Lily doesn’t hold the “gray lady” responsible for the death. Attractive widower Matthew Spencer helps her probe the family and the few servants who haven’t fled Belleford in fear. Schellman ably interweaves appealing developments in Lily’s personal life, a classic locked-room puzzle, and a nuanced look at period society. Regency lovers will be enthralled. Agent: Whitney Ross, Irene Goodman Literary.

June 15, 2022
Fledgling Regency sleuth Lady Lily Adler solves another baffling murder, this time battling...a ghost! Now that he's supported Lily in her widow's grief and abetted her in unraveling two perplexing murder mysteries, Capt. Jack Hartley, the stalwart friend of Lily's late husband, Freddy, has decided to return to his first love, the sea. After Lily and friends Ned and Ofelia Carroway bid him a fond farewell, they stop at the home of Lily's Aunt Eliza in Hampshire before a planned return to London. Eliza and her close friend Susan Clarke can't resist suggesting that Lily would be a perfect match for Matthew Spencer, owner of nearby Morestead Park, before the discussion turns to accounts of a terrifying local ghost. Spencer is indeed courtly and attentive to Lily, but their initial meeting is interrupted by the unctuous Mr. Wright. Scarcely has he introduced himself when his distraught daughter, Selina, bursts in with the news that Mrs. Wright has been murdered by "the lady in gray," the aforementioned ghost. The intrepid, methodical Lily immediately sets about unraveling the mystery, abetted in Jack's absence by Ofelia and Ned. Confounding the case is the fact that the victim's door was locked from the inside. Could the clandestine affair between Selina's brother, Thomas, and one of the maids be an important piece of the puzzle? The plotline of Lily's continued self-discovery and empowerment continues in this third adventure, stitched into the period tapestry in ways that never overshadow the murder mystery. Schellman transports readers to Regency-era England and tantalizes them with a traditional whodunit.

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