Guest post written by author Celeste Connally
Celeste Connally is an Agatha Award nominee and a former freelance writer and editor who writes historical mysteries with a feminist spin set in Regency-era England. She delights in giving her mysteries a good dose of romance and a few research facts she hopes you’ll find as interesting as she does. Passionate about history and slightly obsessed with period dramas, what Celeste loves most is reading and writing about women who don’t always do as they are told.
About All’s Fair in Love and Treachery: Bridgerton meets Agatha Christie in this dazzling next installment in a captivating Regency-era mystery series with a feminist spin.
While Jane Austen might not have written the first female protagonist to be called out for being too sassy, we all know that her Elizabeth Bennet will live on as the queen, the first and foremost to be called “Obstinate, headstrong girl!” And oh, how Lizzy wore her crown well.
My own Regency-era heroine, Lady Petra Forsyth, owes much of her willingness to go against the grain to my own adoration of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice main character. In fact, Petra’s Lizzy-inspired boldness leads her to begin investigating in order to uncover the truth of her missing friend in Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Lord, and now that same gutsiness gives her the extra will she needs to solve multiple crimes in All’s Fair in Love and Treachery.
And I think it’s quite wonderful that Petra does not stand alone in the Regency section of the historical-mystery bookshelves. Thus, I’m delighted to present six mysteries where the Regency heroines and their investigative hubris would make Lady Catherine de Bourgh most seriously displeased indeed.
A Most Agreeable Murder, by Julia Seales – (book one in the Beatrice Steele Mysteries)
Beatrice Steele is a lady whose secret obsession with true crime—and being terrible at needlepoint, music, and art—make her have to work hard indeed to be ladylike and mind her manners at the autumnal ball. Especially when the combination of a murder and a handsome rake of a detective arrives and her sister’s suitor drops dead on the ballroom floor.
Miss Austen Investigates: the Hapless Milliner, by Jessica Bull (book one in the Miss Austen Investigates Mysteries)
With Jane Austen herself becoming the protagonist instead of the author, she shows that an obstinate, headstrong investigator might just be what she was meant to be. Using her clever mind and witty observations, she works to solve the case of a murdered hatmaker, hoping to exonerate her beloved brother is the top suspect before it’s too late.
Murder on Black Swan Lane, by Andrea Penrose (book one in the Wrexford and Sloane Mysteries)
The Earl of Wrexford might have a mind for science, but it’s Charlotte Sloane, the fearless, widowed, and secret satirical cartoonist who keeps Wrexford on his toes as they team up to investigate the murder of a reverend who had been Wrexford’s nemesis.
The Murder of Mr. Wickham, by Claudia Gray (book one in the Mr. Darcy and Miss Tilney Mysteries)
It’s the children of Jane Austen’s most famous characters who take center stage, with the feisty Miss Juliet Tilney (daughter of Northanger Abbey’s Catherine and Henry) working with the dour Jonathan Darcy (eldest son of Pride and Prejudice’s Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam) to solve a classic country-house murder mystery.
The Body in the Garden, by Katharine Schellman – (book one in the Lily Adler Mysteries)
Widower Lily Adler has just returned to London after her mourning period, relishing in her independence. But while attending her friend Lady Walter’s ball, she overhears a man attempting blackmail just before he ends up dead. With the assistance of a handsome navy captain, Lily must navigate the often-vicious social season in order to uncover the truth.
Murder in Highbury, by Vanessa Kelly (book one in the Emma Knightly Mysteries)
Now that Emma Woodhouse has been happily married to her Mr. Knightly for a year, she suddenly needs her famous confidence even more when she finds herself sleuthing with her friend Harriet Martin after the unpleasant Mrs. Elton, the vicar’s wife, is found murdered at the village church.
