A MURDER OF CONVENIENCE
Kathleen Buckley
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GENRE: Historical Mystery
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BLURB:
Ellen
Cuthbert’s husband, Randolph, is now the Earl of Keswick’s heir. Their marriage
is a sham, and Randolph’s mistress, Lydia, is present at the house party. When
she is found murdered in a locked room, all the evidence seems to point to
Ellen. And how could the murderer have escaped the locked room except by
witchcraft? Sir Hugh accompanies his cousin, a magistrate, to the scene of the
murder. They investigate, appalled to find their childhood friend Ellen appears
to be the chief suspect. Hugh’s lack of prospects years ago prevented their
marriage. Now if he cannot find the real murderer, there may be only one final
service he can perform for Ellen to spare her a slow death at the end of the
hangman’s rope.
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Excerpt
Three:
At the inn, they found the doctor had confiscated the
landlord’s keys to the unused cellar storeroom “by order of the magistrate.”
His sharp eyes twinkled as Seaton had given no such order.
“Otherwise the servants would be taking the customers down
for a look at the poor lass at a penny a head, no doubt.” He had sent for his
oil lamp to give enough light.
“I will do surgery by
candle if I must, but for something like this, there’s nothing to match whale
oil.”
“Excellent, Doctor,
when even a small detail may matter.”
On a long table, wide enough to allow the oil lamp to be
moved around Lydia Forsyth’s remains, the body lay curled in the same posture
in which she had been found. Hugh and his cousin stood on either side of
Lockhart. The woman might have been vivacious in life.
Death had wiped away every sign of intelligence, wit, and
kindness.
The doctor ran his fingers over the right side of her skull.
He took longer about it than many would have thought necessary, given that the
blow had clearly been fatal. Hugh needed no medical training to know that.
“She was struck at
least several times with the candlestick, the blows not having fallen all in
the same place. The murderer meant to make sure of her.”
“Do you mean to perform an autopsy?” The foreboding in
Wallace’s voice made it plain he hoped the answer would be negative.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
One
day after coming home from first grade, Kathleen Buckley set about writing her
own dictionary but quickly realized it would take too much time, so she read a
book instead. Possibly Space Cat.
After
a career which included customer service, light bookkeeping, working as a
paralegal, and a stint as a security officer, she began to write as a second
career, rather than as a hobby. Her first historical romance was written after
re-reading Georgette Heyer’s Georgian/Regency romances for the tenth or twelfth
time and wondering if she could do something like that. Apparently she could,
as her eleventh will be released on 3/24/2025. As a change of pace, it’s a
murder mystery, but still set in the mid-1700s (but still with some romance).
Warning:
no bodices are ripped in her romances, which might be described as "powder
& patch & peril" rather than Jane Austen drawing room. They
contain no explicit sex, but do contain the occasional den of vice and mild bad
language, as the situations in which her characters find themselves sometimes
call for an oath a little stronger than "Zounds!"
https://18thcenturyromance.com/ (website)
https://www.instagram.com/18thcenturyromance/
https://www.facebook.com/pg/anunsuitableduchess/
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/270998.Kathleen_Buckley
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/kathleen-buckley
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kathleen-Buckley/author/B072J2GPZ3
https://www.pinterest.com/kathleengailbuc/
https://writing-on-el-camino-real.blogspot.com/
https://www.amazon.com/author/kbuckley (Author page)
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GIVEAWAY
Kathleen
Buckley will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.
