Silence in the Library

Lily Adler is still settling into her new life in London when her father turns up without warning. They are semi-estranged, and he plans to stay with her while he recovers from an illness. The visit is awkward from the first day.

Lily finds a welcome distraction in Lady Wyatt, the new wife of an old family friend. Then Lady Wyatt's husband, Sir Charles, is found dead, and the household is thrown into turmoil.

The death looks like an accident. Simon Page, a Bow Street constable, does not accept that, and Lily is drawn into the inquiry alongside him and Captain Jack Hartley. When a maid connected to the household is also found dead, the case turns more urgent.

Lily needs her disapproving father's help to sort through the Wyatt family's secrets and alibis. Their shaky truce has to hold long enough for that. The book is the second Lily Adler Mystery, a historical whodunit set in Regency-era London, with attention to class and to what a woman of that period could do for herself. Another victim is possible if the killer is not found first.