The Regency area is hot right now. The television show Bridgerton’s newest season is in progress. Last year, we celebrated Jane Austen’s 250th birth anniversary. Numerous adaptations and homages have been popping up in our books, television shows, and movies.
So naturally, our thoughts turn to the wonderful world of Regency mysteries and murder. With fancy balls, Napoleonic wars, and highly stratified social mores, there’s so many opportunities for murder and mayhem.
Here’s a list of six mysteries taking place during the Regency.
The Innkeeper's Daughter
Regency England may look beautiful and bright, but dark plots lie behind it all. Sir Henry March, a gentleman and a spy, finds himself unexpectedly pulled into the seedy underworld of sex trafficking when he rescues a woman, Eliza Broad, found unconscious on the street.
He brings her home to heal and learns that she had been sold by her stepfather to a sex trafficker. She fought back, but was left for dead. March offers her a new lease on life and even his heart. But her past will not go away that easy.
Together, they must pull out the corrupt business of sex trafficking and unveil and bring to justice a traitor to the crown. It’s the first of the four books in the Gentleman Spy Mystery series.
The Rose in the Wheel
Penelope Wolfe may have made a hasty marriage, but she can’t let him be convicted of murder. He’s the main suspect in the death of Constance Tyrone, the founder of the St. Catherine Society, whose mission was to help women in need.
However, the circumstances of her death are unusual: she’s hit by a carriage, one foot bare, the other clad with a clean slipper despite the mud. Also her famed crucifix is missing with only bruises in its place. Bow Street Runner John Chase thinks it was not an accident.
But initial clues point to Wolfe’s husband, Jeremy, an artist, who is found with erotic drawings of the famously celibate woman, casting suspicion on him. They both race to find out who is at the bottom of this crime before it’s too late for Jeremy.
It’s the first in the four book John Chase/Penelope Wolfe Regency Mystery series.
The Hummingbird Dagger
Beth has no memory before the accident. She was hit by a carriage and brought home by her savior Lord James Ellerby to recover at his family’s manor nearby.
She’s a walking contradiction; she could be a maid or a lady. Even her name is a mystery to her, so she calls herself Beth. All she seems to remember is a horrible dream of a hummingbird with blood on its beak.
James, sister Caroline, and Beth want to figure out the truth of Beth’s background, but it may have fatal consequences for them all.
Never Trust a Rogue
There’s nothing quite like being blackmailed into marriage. But that’s where heiress and detective Miss Lindsey Crompton finds herself. She had snuck into the Earl of Mansfield’s home to find evidence of his possible involvement in some murders and got caught.
Her choice is risk exposure or marry the Earl, Thane Parker, who has his own secrets. He’s helping the Bow Street Runners investigate a killer, who may be connected to Miss Crompton.
As sparks fly and more bodies are found, will Crompton and Parker get to the bottom of the crimes and find matrimony? It’s the second in the three book Heiress in London mystery series.
Bellfield Hall
What did the unknown man say to Richard Montague to break off his engagement with his fiancée Catherine at their engagement party? And where did Montague run off to?
In his wake, he leaves his desperate and heartbroken fiancée, Catherine, and a possible murder victim. Desperate to win back her fiancé and clear his name, the son of Sir Edgar Montague, Catherine asks her spinster aunt, Miss Dido Kent, to help her find out what is going on with Richard Montague.
Fans of Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple will appreciate this spirited sleuth. It’s the first in the four-book Dido Kent Mystery series.
The Body in the Garden
Lily Adler has returned to London society after the death of her husband. When a dear friend invites her to a ball at her home, she cannot say no. During the party, she overhears an argument and then finds the same man dead in the garden.
After the Bow Street Runners are paid off to stop the investigation, Lily finds herself in the unique position to find out why the young man was killed. She teams up with Navy Captain, Jack Hartley, and a debutante Miss Oswald to find out why the man was murdered.
Can they find the murderer or will this death be yet another unsolved murder in London? And there’s something quite dashing about that Navy captain too.
It’s the first of the five book Lily Adler Mystery Series.
Featured image via Canva.
