Murder at Honeychurch Hall

This engaging first in a new series from Dennison (Scoop! and three other Vicky Hill mysteries) introduces Kat Stanford, antiques guru and former TV personality. Out of the blue, Kat’s widowed mother, Iris, moves from London to Little Dipperton in Devon. Alarmed, Kat zooms to her mother’s new digs, a small cottage on a grand estate, Honeychurch Hall, only to learn that mom has been writing pseudonymous bestselling romance novels for years. In addition, Kat finds herself in the middle of local drama—at Honeychurch, the nanny has disappeared, and the housekeeper turns up dead; and a long-unsolved jewelry theft continues to weigh on everyone’s mind. On top of all this mayhem, Kat must decide whether to finally dump a married man who keeps pledging to leave his wife for her. While the gentry and servants of the estate don’t rise above stock characters, this upstairs-downstairs cozy should please Downton Abbey fans. Agent: Dominick Abel, Dominick Abel Literary Agency. (May)