The deathly portent

Marriage hasn't dulled the keen wits of Ottilia, Lady Fanshawe, as shown in Bailey's engaging second Regency historical (after 2011's The Gilded Shroud). When a broken axle strands Ottilia, known familiarly as Tillie, and her new husband, Lord Francis, near the village of Witherley, they hope the local blacksmith, Duggleby, can help fix their coach. Alas, Duggleby has just died after the roof of his smithy caved in. Since a young woman, Cassie Dale, had a vision of that collapse beforehand, the villagers label Cassie a witch and blame her for Duggleby's murder. Tillie's examination of the corpse confirms suspicions that the victim had his head bashed in before the ceiling crushed him, but her defense of Cassie against ignorant superstition proves personally extremely risky. The plot's framework could come straight out of Agatha Christie, and if Bailey's lead isn't the most memorable of sleuths, she's still good company. Agent: Richard Curtis, Richard Curtis Associates. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

The village blacksmith succumbs to a roof cave-in. Ottilia and her new husband Sir Francis Fanshawe are returning to their estate from a visit to her aging, deaf and snapping mentor when their carriage wheels become mired in mud and the axle breaks. While Tillie picks wildflowers and Fan cusses their plight, his man Ryde heads for the nearest village to get help. On his return, he tells them that the poor blacksmith Duggleby died the night before, squashed under a falling roof, then finished off by a fire. The locals, he adds, have blamed his death on Cassie Dale--a spawn of the devil, they maintain, who foresaw the smith's demise through her second sight. They took after her and her maid, pounding them with stones. The women barely managed to reach the vicarage, where the newly appointed Rev. Aiden Kinnerton sheltered them. Second sight? A suspicious death? Tillie's snooping instincts are aroused, and she cajoles Fan into getting them to Witherley so that she can begin some decorous prying. Before the lid is nailed shut on Duggleby's coffin, Tillie has learned that someone whacked him fiercely on the head, that a pair of chambermaids are warring over marriage prospects and that another maid has gone missing. There'll be more death and hints about secret riches; the Rev. Kinnerton will continue having nightmares about his service in Africa; and the drinkers at the pub will continue accusing Mrs. Dale of witchcraft. But Tillie and her beloved Fan will sort through all these imbroglios to the truth, then, exhausted, head for home. Like The Gilded Shroud (2011, etc.), a fulsome simulacrum of the Regency era, with just enough upstairs/downstairs brouhaha to entertain fans of Downton Abbey.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.