Coming Soon: The Penford Manor Murders by Fiona Veitch Smith.

Published by Embla Books

15Aprl 2025
The 4th Book in the Clara Vale Mystery Series.

At Penford Manor, the guests are arriving to celebrate the start of the grouse-hunting season: lords and ladies, barons and baronesses, a
Member of Parliament - and chemistry graduate turned detective, Miss Clara Vale, an old friend of the family. But Clara is no ordinary guest: she's secretly investigating a blackmail plot against Lady Penford. Someone in the house is already up to no good, but when the body of a local trade unionist is found in the grounds, Clara's case gets even more
complicated by a clue left by the body linking it to the blackmail note.
Who has discovered Lady Penford's secret? Can Clara and her trusted assistant Bella work together to find the murderer? And what do the cornflowers which keep popping up everywhere mean?
Amidst the glittering dresses and sparkling conversation of society, Clara must find the truth - before the killer acts again!

 

Fiona Veitch Smith writes Golden Age mysteries and historical fiction and has been shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger. Her breakthrough series was Poppy Denby Investigates about a young reporter sleuth in 1920s London. Her new series, the Miss Clara Vale Mysteries with Embla Books, is set in and around Newcastle in the late 20s and early 30s, featuring a female forensic scientist who inherits a detective agency. The third book in the series, The Pyramid Murders, is due out in June 2024. Fiona has worked as a journalist, a university lecturer and a communications manager, and mentors new novelists. She grew up in Northumberland, then spent her teens and twenties in South Africa. She now lives in Newcastle.

http://fiona.veitchsmith.com/