Murder in an English Village: A Beryl and Edwina Mystery

In 1920, American adventuress Beryl Helliwell, in need of some peace and quiet, reads an ad from "a well-bred lady" requesting a lodger. It leads her to her old schoolmate Edwina Davenport, who is down on her luck in the hamlet of Walmsley Parva. To defray local rumors about Edwina and her reduced finances, Beryl informs the village gossip that the two women are secret agents. The next evening Edwina is attacked in her garden, and the friends realize this quiet village holds some deadly secrets. They start questioning the wartime disappearance of a land girl who worked on the local estate. When another former land girl dies, only Beryl and Edwina consider her death murder. This new cozy launch from Ellicott (a pen name for Jessica Estevao, author of Whispers Beyond the Veil) introduces a pair of delightful odd-couple amateur sleuths, a confident American adventuress and a ladylike British spinster.