Mona Moon is an American heiress of Moon Enterprises, a copper mining conglomerate. She is also engaged to Robert Farley, Duke of Brynelleth. She has traveled to England with him to visit Brynelleth, his ancestral home, only to discover that it is a crumbling, derelict shell of its former glory.
While Robert had warned her beforehand that Brynelleth was ramshackle, the ancient manor is worse than Mona anticipated. She thinks the best thing to do is tear Brynelleth down and build a new modern home, but that simply is not done in England. There is too much history housed in those walls going back to the Norman Conquest.
So Mona makes the best of a bad situation. She throws money at the problem. Each morning, Mona rises at six and makes her way to breakfast where she is greeted by Violet, her companion, Mrs. Rymer, the social secretary, and sometimes Robert when he is not rushing off to handle some legal issue with the property. She eats quickly and then sets about supervising the work at Brynelleth. Farm tenants have been hired to clean the manor along with Brynelleth’s regular house staff, Mrs. Rymer is in charge of the manor’s inventory, and Violet helps repair the antique bed and table linens.
Mona is charged with surveying the property lines and plans to check in at lunch to see how work is progressing at the manor. Wearing sunglasses, dungarees, and a white shirt with lots of pockets, Mona, a trained cartographer, ventures out to the west border of the estate where someone takes several pot shots at her. She’s an easy target with her platinum hair and white shirt, but she escapes into the woods. Unable to identify her attacker, Mona makes her way safely back to Brynelleth.
Mona is already on edge and her patience is severely tried when workers quit due to claims of haunting by ghosts, missing tools, and sabotage of repairs. She spends the rest of the day interviewing the servants, searching for hidden passageways, and looking for anything that will reveal the secrets of Brynelleth. Someone is against the ancient manor springing to life again.
Mona is determined to find the culprit. There is no way she and Robert can return to her home, Moon Manor, for the wedding with such chaos at Brynelleth.
Who is sabotaging the needed repairs? Who is trying to scare her away with gunfire?
Mona is going to get to the bottom of this mess. No one is going to frighten her away—not even the ghosts of Brynelleth.
That’s how Mona does it in 1934.
Murder Under A British Moon, A 1930s Mona Moon Mystery #9
Genre: Historical, Cozy
Release: July 2022
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Mona Moon travels to Merry Old England to visit Brynelleth, Robert Farley’s ancestral home, for the first time. Hoping to make a good impression, Mona finds she is rebuffed at every turn by Robert’s friends and even his servants. Events turn more sour as the staff quits after seeing ghosts, and a phantom keeps sabotaging repairs made to the manor. Despondent, Mona wants to return to the United States, but her trip is delayed when an American agent is discovered murdered at Brynelleth. She can’t leave Robert in such a lurch and begs her good friend, Lady Alice Nithercott, to help her find the culprit, who seems to be out for blood—Mona’s blood!
About the author
Award-winning author Abigail Keam writes the Mona Moon Mystery Series—a rags-to-riches 1930s mystery series, which includes real people and events into the story line. “I am a student of history and love to insert historical information into my mysteries. My goal is to entertain my readers, but if they learn a little something along the way—well, then we are both happy.”
She currently lives on the Palisades bordering the Kentucky River in a metal house with her husband and various critters.
All comments are welcomed.