A war widow with one solved case. A champion pie-baker dead in her kitchen. A constable who calls it choking.

Violet Vickers, Doctor’s Widow and Amateur Sleuth. Violet is tired of retelling the death at her dinner party when Nora Lockwood telephones: her sister Elsie, a champion pie-baker, is dead at her kitchen table, and Nora will not believe she choked. She wants Nora to have the truth, and she wants a reason of her own to leave the house. Elsie left suitors, prize money and a sharp tongue, and Constable Thornton has already told Violet to go home to her books.

Lucy, Violet’s Lady’s Maid and Note-Taker. Lucy fetches the crimson coat, holds the notebook, and rides in the back of the motor car with her mistress from townhouse to social club. She wants to be more than the girl who pours the tea. A smitten young constable keeps turning up, and her first gin and tonic goes straight to her head.

Three suitors describe three different Elsies, and the contest organizer in Sussex keeps a winners’ list with the same name all the way down. If Violet is wrong, Nora is left with a sister who choked on her own pie. If she is right, someone who knew Elsie has to answer for it.

Elsie’s pies took every prize going. Violet means to find out what finally beat her.

– amateur sleuth — a doctor’s widow on her second case

– 1920s English village mystery — motor cars, telephones and Sunday service

– culinary cosy mystery — a champion pie-baker and the rivals she beat

– baking competition rivalry — a winners’ list with one name down the column

– lady and maid sleuthing duo — Lucy holds the notebook and speaks up when it counts

– blustering village constable — a policeman who wants her back with her books

– death the police call an accident — a choking that a sister refuses to accept

– war widow heroine — a husband lost to the Great War

– clean cosy fiction — no profanity and no graphic violence

Perfect for fans of 1920s English village whodunits, culinary cosies with a baking-contest rivalry, and lady-and-maid sleuthing pairs with a constable to outwit.

Read the second case in the Violet Vickers 1920s Cosy Mysteries series today.

Heat Level: Closed Door (no on-page intimacy)

Tone: Cosy · Witty · Atmospheric

Series Type: Book 2 of 12 in the Violet Vickers 1920s Cosy Mysteries series — each book reads as a standalone

Ending: Hopeful close

POV: Single POV · Third Person

Content Notes: off-page death, grief, mild peril, attempted suicide

Inspirational Theme: Hopeful · faith-friendly tone