Silver Murder

Kensington keeps its secrets close. Agnes Fane keeps them closer. By day, Agnes prepares Kensington's dead for their final farewell, a peculiar inheritance from her father's undertaking business, and one she's rather better suited to than anyone in her genteel corner of post-war South Africa would like to admit. She dresses hair, powders cheeks, and listens. People tell undertakers things they'd never tell a policeman. Which is exactly why, when beloved local barber Camillo Rosser is found murdered in his own shop, his body painted a strange and deliberate silver, it's Agnes the grieving town turns to, whether Inspector Van der Merwe likes it or not. He doesn't. Undeterred, Agnes recruits the town's newest and most reluctant doctor, the proper, reserved Syril Reitz, and together they begin pulling at the threads Camillo left behind: a locket hidden beneath a towel, a family feud nobody wants to discuss, a woman in mourning who refuses to trust the police, and the quiet, watchful presence of Kensington's wealthiest and most generous citizen, a man everybody trusts and nobody quite understands. The closer Agnes gets to the truth, the clearer it becomes: Camillo wasn't killed for what he had. He was killed for what he knew, and for refusing, even in death, to keep it quiet. Someone in Kensington is very good at keeping secrets. Agnes Fane is better. A witty, atmospheric cozy mystery for readers who love their sleuths fearless, their small towns dangerous, and their tea served with a side of scandal, Silver Murder marks the beginning of the Kensington Mysteries series.