#DeathbyaCornishCove (A Cressida Fawcett Mystery Book 2) by Fliss Chester (2023)
Publication Date: 9 February 2023
Length: 291 pages
Rating: 🍾🍾🍾🍾
“There’s no reason at all to think that this party will end in murder, Cressida thought to herself sternly. But a few hairs prickled at the back of her neck, and she shivered the feeling off. Why, that’s just the sea breeze, surely?”
My thanks to Bookouture for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Death by a Cornish Cove’ by Fliss Chester. I was also invited to take part in their publication week blog tour. This is my stop.
This is Book 2 in this series of historical cosy mysteries set in Britain during the mid-1920s. It features the Hon. Cressida Fawcett, an independently minded young woman. While she enjoys a privileged life she has a keen interest in interior design and recently undertook a touch of amateur sleuthing at a country house party.
Now she and her best friend, Dotty (Lady Dorothy Chatterton) are motoring down to Cornwall in her red Bugatti for a grand fancy dress ball hosted by Lord and Lady Trevelyan at Penbeagle House. Cressida and Dotty are staying on for a week’s holiday.
They arrive at the party dressed as pirates, accompanied by Cressida’s pug, Ruby, in a feathered parrot costume. But Cressida gets a shock when Randolph, Lord Canterbury, is at the ball. He is her former beau - a lauded Egyptologist, who had gifted Cressida with the pug puppy, Duchess Incarnadine Rose, now thankfully renamed Ruby.
Cressida had rejected his marriage proposal though now learns that he and Selina Trevelyan are engaged. Her pride is a little pinched as “a tiny part of her would have been gratified if he’d waited just a little longer and not already found his way into the affections of one of her friends.”
There’s a great deal of partying until oh dear it ends as Cressida had feared in a murder…. She begins to investigate while everyone waits for Scotland Yard Detective Inspector Andrews to arrive from London. She hopes that he will be more amenable to her help following their encounter in ‘Death Among the Diamonds’ or will he instruct her to not poke “her aristocratic nose” into matters? Yet has any police detective ever restrained a determined amateur sleuth in a historical cosy? I think not.
As expected I warmed more to Cressida in this second outing. I especially appreciated her concern for her dear friend, Dotty, who herself is a wonderful character.
Overall, this delightful historical cosy mystery confirmed that this is a series that I will be following. I especially enjoy its Jazz Age setting and the sophistication and independence of Cressida. I shall certainly be on the look out for Book 3.