Murder At The Elms by Alyssa Maxwell

Emma and Derrick just married and Emma is trying hard to live life "differently" aware of Derrick's elevated social position, though despite it being 1901 with very Victorian ideas that people in general have about women in society, Derrick has startlingly modern views. Covering a rather newsworthy event, a strike by domestic staff at the Berwinds bungalow unheard at the time and put down drastically by the family by summarily dismissing all the errant staff brought Emma into direct contact with the family. an invitation to view the house with all its mod cons was the opening Emma needed to find out more about the repercussions of the strike but it ended with the discovery of a maids body (one of those who didnt strike) and the loss of an invaluable necklace. Detective Jesse calls on Emma and Derrick to provide the inside information on this high society party because he will never be privy to its machinations and cover ups and it is this that for me was very good reading. How this society was blind to its own defects and swept everything under the table to protect their own because the deaths were mere poorer people who worked for them, mere nobodies. The story unravelled slowly but it was a fascinating read - the murder, the clues, the position of a newspaper reporter at the time, hypocricy of society all added to the variety of the read. Sent by Kensington Books for an unbiased read courtesy of Netgalley.