Murder with All the Trappings: An Edwardian Cozy Mystery (The Saddler Mysteries)

A middle-aged saddler. An unexpected corpse. A witty old horse with a nose for murder. Sometimes, the best detectives have hooves. Downton Abbey meets Dick Francis in this cozy historical murder mystery. Somerset, December 1903. Everyone in Pelgren Vale is impressed when Miss Harriet Cobb is invited to Ashwold Abbey, home of the Earl of Ashwold, to attend Lady Eve’s wedding. But Harriet is not a guest—she’s the saddler. Unfortunately, it seems to be another silly project: create a decorative saddle with all the trappings for a horseback wedding. Harriet’s horse, Bertie, considers weddings to be one of the more tiresome human traditions. And, of course, a horse in costume is nothing less than absurd—which is why he is mortified to be chosen to carry the bride down the aisle. When Bertie and Harriet stumble across a corpse, everyone in the gothic abbey is a suspect, and even the most absurd details must be considered. Why did Lady Eve choose one of the least-romantic poems in history for her wedding theme? Why is the abbey’s sinister priest obsessed with old pagan traditions?