Murder in the Rose Arbor: A Small-Town 1930s Cozy Mystery

About Murder in the Rose Arbor: A Small-Town 1930s Cozy Mystery

At Thornleigh’s summer Rose Fair, murder arrives in broad daylight. District nurse Hester Finch is supposed to spend the afternoon treating blisters, wasp stings, and fainting ladies, not standing over the body of the village’s most feared charity matron. But when Lavinia Phipps collapses beneath the rose arbor just after threatening half the town, Hester knows the death is no simple tragedy.

The police already have an easy suspect: young midwife Iris Vale, Hester’s closest professional ally. Hester is certain Iris is being used as the neat answer to a much dirtier problem. Because Lavinia had enemies everywhere.

A chemist with missing poison stock. Trustees with money troubles. Relations desperate for inheritance.

Committee women with old humiliations to hide. Then Hester uncovers a clue tied to the long-closed St. Agnes Home for Mothers, where her own mother once worked before her name was quietly stained.

Someone in Thornleigh is willing to lie, threaten, and destroy records to keep the past buried.