Audiobooks by Alyssa Maxwell

After a disappointing year as a society columnist for the Herald and staying with her more well-heeled Vanderbilt relatives in New York City, Emma has returned to the salty air, glittering ocean vistas, and grand stately mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, more determined than ever to report on hard news. But for now she's covering the social event of the season at Ochre Court, a coming-out ball designed to showcase Cleo Cooper-Smith, who will be literally on display, fittingly as Cleopatra, in an elaborate tableau vivant. Recently installed modern electricity will allow Miss Cooper-Smith to truly shine. But as the deb ascends to her place of honor, the ballroom is plunged into darkness. When the lights come back on, Cleo sits still on her throne, electrocuted to death. Quickly establishing that the wiring was tampered with, Emma now has a murder to investigate. And the array of eligible suspects could fill another ballroom-from a shady New York real estate developer to a neglected sister and the mother of a spurned suitor. As Emma begins to discover this crime has unseen connections to a nefarious network, she puts her own life at risk to shine a light on the dark motives behind a merciless murder.

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Lauren Ezzo (Narrator)

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Murder at Chateau sur Mer

Late nineteenth-century Newport, Rhode Island, is home to some of America's wealthiest citizens. For society reporter Emma Cross, a less well-heeled cousin to the illustrious Vanderbilts, trailing gossip and glamour will lead her straight into murder . . . Emma's job is to take note of the real players off the field-Newport's well-bred elite. But the fashionable façade is breached when a woman demands to speak to the wife of Senator George Wetmore-until she is escorted off the grounds by the police. The next morning, police detective Jesse Whyte asks Emma to meet him at the Wetmores's Bellevue Avenue home, Chateau sur Mer, where the senator's wife, Edith, has mysteriously asked to see her. Upon entering the mansion, Emma is confronted with a crime scene-the intruder from the polo match lies dead at the foot of a grand staircase. Edith Wetmore implores Emma to use her reporter skills and her discretion to investigate. When Emma learns the victim was a prostitute-and pregnant-she wonders if the senator was being blackmailed. As Emma peels back layers of deception and family secrets, she may have met her match in a desperate killer who will trample anyone who gets in the way . . .

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Lauren Ezzo (Narrator)

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A Deadly Endowment: Lady and Lady's Maid, Book 7

Set among the landed gentry of post-WWI England and perfect for fans of Downton Abbey, Alyssa Maxwell's latest historical mystery finds sleuthing duo Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady's maid, Eva Huntford, hunting a killer after the decision to open Foxwood Hall for guided tours turns deadly... To make ends meet, Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady's maid, Eva Huntford, have decided to open up Foxwood Hall to guided public tours. Not everyone is pleased about it--even to the point of committing murder... The lean times following the Great War continue to require creative solutions for England's noble class. But Lady Phoebe's proposal to open up the Renshaw estate to guided tours for additional income strikes many in the family as a 'vulgar enterprise.' Phoebe's grandfather, the Earl of Wroxly, however, reluctantly concedes the necessity. Their first tour group consists of members of the Historical Society, a magazine writer, and a flock of students. It's a large group for Phoebe, her sister Amelia, and Eva to manage, and when the widow Arvina Bell goes missing, Eva goes in search of her--only to find her in the library, strangled with a silken drapery cord. The schoolchildren are promptly sent home, but the members of the Historical Society--many of whom also wandered off at times--remain for interrogation. There is also, curiously, a framed photo missing from the library. As the police hastily zero in on a suspect, Phoebe and Eva weigh the clues. Does the crime have to do with rumors of hidden treasure at Foxwood Hall? But they must make haste to solve the widow's murder--before someone else becomes history...

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Mandy Weston (Narrator)

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Murder at the Breakers

In a historical mystery for Downton Abbey fans, a society reporter covers a killer party in Gilded Age Newport. Newport, Rhode Island, August 1895: She may be a less well-heeled relation, but as second cousin to millionaire patriarch Cornelius Vanderbilt, twenty-one-year-old Emma Cross is on the guest list for a grand ball at the Breakers, the Vanderbilts' summer home. She also has a job to do-report on the event for the society page of the Newport Observer. But Emma observes much more than glitz and gaiety when she witnesses a murder. The victim is Cornelius Vanderbilt's financial secretary, who plunges off a balcony faster than falling stock prices. Emma's black sheep brother Brady is found in Cornelius's bedroom passed out next to a bottle of bourbon and stolen plans for a new railroad line. Brady has barely come to before the police have arrested him for the murder. But Emma is sure someone is trying to railroad her brother and resolves to find the real killer at any cost . . .

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Eva Kaminsky (Narrator)

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Murder at Marble House

With the dawn of the twentieth century on the horizon, the fortunes of the venerable Vanderbilt family still shine brightly in the glittering high society of Newport, Rhode Island. But when a potential scandal strikes, the Vanderbilts turn to cousin and society page reporter Emma Cross to solve a murder and a disappearance . . . Responding to a frantic call on her newfangled telephone from her eighteen-year-old cousin, Consuelo Vanderbilt, Emma Cross arrives at the Marble House mansion and learns the cause of her distress-Consuelo's mother, Alva, is forcing her into marriage with the Duke of Marlborough. Her mother has even called in a fortune teller to assure Consuelo of a happy future. But the future is short-lived for the fortune teller, who is found dead by her crystal ball, strangled with a silk scarf. Standing above her is one of the Vanderbilts' maids, who is promptly taken into police custody. After the frenzy has died down, Consuelo is nowhere to be found. At Alva's request, Emma must employ her sleuthing skills to determine if the vanishing Vanderbilt has eloped with the beau of her choice-or if her disappearance may be directly connected to the murder . . .

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Eva Kaminsky (Narrator)

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Murder at Wakehurst

Following the death of her uncle, Cornelius Vanderbilt, in September 1899, a somber Emma is in no mood for one of Newport's extravagant parties. But to keep Vanderbilt's reckless son Neily out of trouble, she agrees to accompany him to an Elizabethan fete on the lavish grounds of Wakehurst, the Ochre Point 'cottage' modeled after an English palace, owned by Anglophile James Van Alen. Held in Wakehurst's English-style gardens, the festivities will include a swordplay demonstration, an archery competition, scenes from Shakespeare's plays, and even a joust. As Emma wanders the grounds distracted by grief, she overhears a fierce argument between a man and a woman behind a tall hedge. As the joust begins, she's drawn by the barking of Van Alen's dogs and finds a man on the ground, an arrow through his chest. The victim is one of the 400's most influential members, Judge Clayton Schuyler. Could one of the countless criminals he'd imprisoned over the years have returned to seek revenge-or could one of his own family members have targeted him? With the help of her beau Derrick Andrews and Detective Jesse Whyte, Emma begins to learn the judge was not the straight arrow he appeared to be. As their investigation leads them in ever-widening circles, Emma will have to score a bull's eye to stop the killer from taking another life . . .

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Lauren Ezzo (Narrator)

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A Sinister Service

In the Alyssa Maxwell's sixth delightful A Lady and Lady's Maid Mystery set after World War I, a trip to Staffordshire for Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady's maid, Eva Huntford, leads to murder in a famed pottery works... Following the devastation of the Great War, England's noble class takes comfort in honoring tradition. To celebrate their grandparents' wedding anniversary, Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her siblings travel to Staffordshire to commission a china service bearing the Wroxly coat of arms from the venerated Crown Lily Potteries, a favorite of Queen Mary. The two leading designers at the illustrious china manufacturer offer competing patterns. But when one of them is found dead--his body crushed in a grinding pan and his design pattern book missing--his rival is immediately suspected. The police are also suspicious of the dead designer's resentful young son, a schoolmate of Phoebe's fifteen-year-old brother Fox. When Fox gets involved to help his friend, Phoebe begins to investigate the rival artist. At the same time, Eva is enlisted to go undercover at the works so she can gain the confidence of the female employees, who are only allowed to paint, not design, which may have led to a grudge against the victim. Pursuing a killer who has no compunction about using a kiln as a coffin, Phoebe and Eva take their lives into their hands to discover the shattering truth...

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Mandy Weston (Narrator)

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Murder at Kingscote

In late nineteenth-century Newport, Rhode Island, journalist Emma Cross discovers the newest form of transportation has become the newest type of murder weapon ... On a clear July day in 1899, the salty ocean breeze along Bellevue Avenue carries new smells of gasoline and exhaust as Emma, now editor-in-chief of the Newport Messenger, covers Newport's first-ever automobile parade. But the festive atmosphere soon turns to shock as young Philip King drunkenly swerves his motorcar into a wooden figure of a nanny pushing a pram on the obstacle course. That evening, at a dinner party hosted by Ella King at her magnificent Gothic-inspired "cottage," Kingscote, Emma and her beau Derrick Andrews are enjoying the food and the company when Ella's son staggers in, obviously still inebriated. But the disruption is nothing compared to the urgent shouts of the coachman. Rushing out, they find the family's butler pinned against a tree beneath the front wheels of Philip's motorcar, close to death. At first, the tragic tableau appears to be a reckless accident-one which could ruin Philip's reputation. But when Emma later receives a message informing her that the butler bullied his staff and took advantage of young maids, she begins to suspect the scene may have been staged and steers the police toward a murder investigation. But while Emma investigates the connections between a competing heir for the King fortune, a mysterious child, an inmate of an insane asylum, and the brutal boxing rings of Providence, a killer remains at large-with unfinished business to attend to ...

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Eva Kaminsky (Narrator)

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A Silent Stabbing: A Lady and Lady's Maid Mystery Book 5

As England recovers from its costly involvement in the Great War, Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady's maid, Eva Huntford, find the steady comforts of their lives unsettled by a local case of murder . . . Eva is excited for a visit from her sister Alice, who lives in Suffolk with her husband and three children. But when Alice arrives alone, desiring a break from her family, Eva becomes concerned. Her dismay deepens as Alice starts spending time with a former beau, Keenan Ripley, who owns the nearby pear orchard. At the same time, Phoebe's sister Julia, now a widow and pregnant, is in a fretful state, and Phoebe struggles to be helpful to her. When Keenan's brother Stephen, the new head gardener at the Renshaw estate, Foxwood Hall, is found impaled by a pair of hedge clippers, the police--including Eva's beau, Constable Miles Brannock--suspect his closest kin. Stephen had been eager to sell their orchard to an American developer, but Keenan had fiercely resisted. A table set with two teacups and scones suggests Keenan had company the morning of the murder--and Eva fears her sister was with him. If Alice were to provide Keenan with an alibi, her reputation and marriage would be ruined. She denies being there but is clearly withholding secrets, much to Eva's consternation. Now, to protect her sister, Eva and Phoebe set off to expose the gardener's real killer, putting their own lives at risk . . . Praise for Alyssa Maxwell and her Lady and Lady's Maid Mysteries! A Murderous Marriage 'The action unfolds smoothly until well-disguised clues lead to a clever and satisfying denouement. Downton Abbey fans will have fun.' --Publishers Weekly 'A well-crafter historical mystery which will delight devotees of television shows such as Downton Abbey.' --Suspense Magazine A Devious Death 'Well-crafted . . . Maxwell artfully portrays the personal dynamics of English society at the time, and readers will hope to see more of the endearing Phoebe and Eva.' --Publishers Weekly 'An unusual twist rooted in the recent horrors of World War I adds interest to a country-house mystery.' --Kirkus Reviews A Pinch of Poison 'Along with a bracing mystery, Maxwell explores compelling themes. Although this is from a slightly earlier time period, it's a good match with Rhys Bowen's Her Royal Spyness series.' --Booklist Murder Most Malicious 'Entertaining . . . some of the characters and scenes are highly reminiscent of TV's Downton Abbey, but Maxwell makes Phoebe and Eva distinctive personalities in their own right.' --Publishers Weekly 'Downton Abbey fans will enjoy Maxwell's evocative descriptions of a particular society as it transitions from the Edwardian Age to modern times.' --Library Journal

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Mandy Weston (Narrator)

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A Murderous Marriage: A Lady and Lady's Maid Mystery Book 4

The fourth instalment in Alyssa Maxwell's A Lady and Lady's Maid Mystery series. A Murderous Marriage is sure to please fans of historical cozy mysteries. Despite being the granddaughter of an earl, Julia Renshaw is under pressure to marry for money-and has settled for the wealthy, and older, Gilbert Townsend. It's clear to her sister Phoebe and lady's maid Eva that this is not a love match. At the reception aboard the groom's yacht, there is tension between Gil and several guests: his best man, his spinster sister; and his younger cousin and current heir. Moreover, the bride has discovered that Gil's pretty secretary, among others, will be joining them for the honeymoon. When Gil's drowned body is found floating in the harbour the following morning, Phoebe and Eva must discover who pushed him overboard to exonerate the now arrested Julia of his murder. "Maxwell artfully portrays the personal dynamics of English society at the time... readers will hope to see more of the endearing Phoebe and Eva.' PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Mandy Weston (Narrator)

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A Devious Death: A Lady and Lady's Maid Mystery Book 3

In the sobering yet hopeful years following the First World War, Lady Phoebe Renshaw and her lady's maid, Eva Huntford, find their summer plans marred by an instance of murder . . . Phoebe and her sister Julia are eager for a summer getaway at High Head Lodge, the newly purchased estate of their cousin Regina. But they are not the only houseguests. Regina's odd friend, Olive, is far from friendly, and Regina's mother and brother-bitter over the unequal distribution of her father's inheritance-have descended on the house to confront Regina. In addition to the family tension, Eva is increasingly suspicious of Lady Julia's new maid. She questions Miss Stanley's loyalty and integrity, wondering why she left her former employer so suddenly. And why does Regina seem ill at ease around the maid, as if they were previously acquainted? Everyone, it appears, is on edge. But things go from tense to tragic when their hostess meets an untimely end-mysteriously murdered in her bed with no signs of struggle. Now, with suspects in every room, Lady Phoebe and Eva must uncover secrets hidden behind closed doors-before a killer ensures they never leave High Head Lodge . . . alive.

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Mandy Weston (Narrator)

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Murder at Crossways

The days are getting shorter as summer's end approaches, which means it's time for the Harvest Festival, the last big event of the season, held by Mamie Fish, wife of millionaire railroad tycoon Stuyvesant Fish, at their grand 'cottage,' Crossways. The neocolonial mansion is decked out in artificial autumn splendor, and an extravagant scavenger hunt will be held. But the crowning jewel of the evening will be the guest of honor, Prince Otto of Austria. As acting editor-in-chief of the Newport Messenger, Emma had hoped to leave her days as a society reporter behind her. But at the last moment, she must fill in and attend the Harvest Festival. With nearly every eligible daughter of Newport high society in attendance, Emma can almost hear romantic dreams shattering like glass slippers when the prince fails to appear. The next morning, he is found dead in the side garden at Crossways, making it clear a murderer crashed the party. The prince has been stabbed in the same manner as another man, recently found on nearby Bailey's Beach-who strongly resembles Emma's half-brother Brady's father, presumed dead for nearly thirty years after a yachting mishap. As Emma investigates a connection between the two victims, she is joined on the hunt by Mamie Fish herself. But they must hurry-before the killer slips away like the fading summer . . .

Alyssa Maxwell (Author), Lauren Ezzo (Narrator)

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