Two Regency era spinsters, one quiet and one quarrelsome, try to catch a killer before Christmas in this new historical mystery series.
Miss Judith St Clair is a frugal and pious young woman. When her father accepts a lucrative new position as the rector of a parish in Derbyshire just before Christmas, she is dismayed that she and all her siblings must move to this cold and inhospitable country while still in mourning for their mother. What's worse, her father's patrons are the rich and imposing Haddingtons, a family recently settled at Wycliff Castle.
Miss Louisa-Margaretta Haddington, after years of dismissing every possible suitor, is in love. But her parents, who will not consent to the match, have removed her and her reputation from harm by buying an enormous estate in Derbyshire. Louisa-Margaretta is determined to avoid everyone, but when she and the rector's daughter both take refuge in the library to avoid dancing with gentlemen at a ball, they are unwitting witnesses to a murder.
Though each young woman despises the other, they know they will need each other's help if they are to find the killer and save their families. With Judith's quiet intelligence and Louisa-Margaretta's fiery and flirtatious nature, they set out to solve the puzzle. But when one of them has a brush with death disguised as a hunting accident, they realise that they must be quick, or they shall risk running out of time.