Murder at the Rose Festival: A 1920s Historical Cozy Mystery
Paperback
Series: Lady Charlotte Wrenwood Murder Mysteries, Book 10
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Jun 9 2026
Pages: 368
Weight: 0.98
Height: 0.92 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
When the roses are at their peak, so are the secrets.
Lady Charlotte Wrenwood came back to Thornwick-on-Avon for one quiet week - old friendships, a column to write, and the annual Rose Festival in full bloom. She did not come back for a body beneath the rose arch.
But that is precisely what she finds on the second morning of the festival: Reginald Fenn, four-time Golden Rose Cup champion and the village's most charming nuisance, dead in the walled garden of Thornwick Hall. The local Inspector is thorough, methodical, and entirely focused on the wrong suspect - Charlotte's dearest friend, Violet Ashby, who had the misfortune of losing her temper in public the night before.
Charlotte knows Violet. She knows the sound of her fury and the shape of her loyalty, and she knows with absolute certainty that Violet did not do this.
What she doesn't know yet is who did - or just how long they have been planning it.
With her notebook in hand, her remarkable cat Ptolemy reading character rather more accurately than any detective she's ever met, and a quietly attentive village doctor who has a gift for making tea and asking the right questions, Charlotte sets out to untangle a web of old rivalries, buried accounts, and the particular cruelty of a charming man who knew exactly how to trap the people around him.
The clues are everywhere, if you know how to look: in a missing flask, a bundle of dried foxglove, a herbalist's appointment book, and the careful testimony of a groundskeeper who saw something he'd rather not have seen.
In a village where everyone knows everyone - and everyone knew Reginald - the truth is tangled up with twenty years of grudges, a long-running blackmail arrangement, and one woman who had simply, quietly, run out of options.
The roses are beautiful this year. But beauty in Thornwick has always had thorns.
If you love witty, warm-hearted historical cozy mysteries featuring a sharp-eyed heroine, a community that feels like home, and a fair-play mystery filled with twists and clues, pour yourself a cup of tea, find your favorite chair, and meet Lady Charlotte Wrenwood.
Murder at the Rose Festival is Book 10 in the Lady Charlotte Wrenwood Murder Mystery series and follows another investigation in Charlotte's ongoing adventures.
Grab your copy today and spend a week in Thornwick - the roses will keep, and the mystery won't wait.
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