The body in the garden

London, 1815. Lily Adler has recently lost her husband and is setting up a household of her own in the city. Society frowns on women who live independently, but she means to build a life on her own terms.

Her first evening out is a society ball, and it ends badly. A man is shot dead in the garden. Moments earlier, Lily overheard him trying to blackmail someone influential, so she knows more than most guests about why he might have been silenced.

The case is soon buried. A nobleman bribes the magistrate in charge of the inquiry, and official interest in the killing stops. Lily concludes that she may be the only person willing to look for the murderer, and she starts asking questions herself.

Two allies join her. One is a navy captain with a roguish streak, the other an heiress from the West Indies whose wits are sharp. They have to work quietly, using ballrooms, calls and gossip as cover during the social season.

The book is the first in the Lily Adler Mystery series, an amateur-sleuth mystery with a cozy tone and close attention to period detail. It moves at an unhurried pace, and the question hanging over it is how far Lily can push before the powerful man protecting the secret notices her.