Tea By The Sea Mysteries Book 6
Author: Vicki Delany
Genre: Mystery
Hardcover; Digital Book (Audiobook Available)
ISBN #: 9781496747303
Kensington Cozies
304 Pages
$27.00; $12.99 Amazon
July 29, 2025
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Cape Cod tearoom owner Lily Roberts leaves New England for old England to attend a party for an aristocratic centenarian -- but what goes on there is anything but noble...
Long ago, Lily's grandmother Rose worked as a kitchen maid at Thornecroft Castle, and now Elizabeth, dowager countess of Frockmorton, is celebrating her one hundredth birthday. Rose still has fond feelings for her onetime employer, so a group trip to Yorkshire is planned. It's also an opportunity for Lily to visit her boyfriend, who's currently working in England -- and to indulge in some British tea.
Much has changed, however, and the ancestral home is now a hotel, which will be closed for a week to accommodate the big bash, much to the chagrin of Elizabeth's grandson, Julien -- leading Lily to overhear an argument among the younger generation about the fate of the family fortune. Little do they know that Elizabeth plans to sell the famous Frockmorton Sapphires out of the family for the first time in centuries...
The icing on the cake comes when the jewels suddenly vanish -- and things really go nuts when a party guest dies from an allergic reaction to almonds that someone smuggled into Lily's coronation chicken sandwiches. Now she'll have to scour the property to find out who would commit murder in such a manor...
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Lily Roberts owns a tearoom on Cape Cod, and her grandmother Rose owns the neighboring B&B, which they have closed down for a week so that Rose can attend a birthday celebration in England for her old employer, Lady Elizabeth Crawford, dowager countess of Frockmorton. Along with them is Lily's best friend Bernie, who will be visiting her boyfriend Matt Goodwell, a writer who is researching his next novel in England.
At a pub, Bernie and Lily overhear a family argument, and later learn that these are Elizabeth's grandchildren, and all of them (or most) are worried about what Elizabeth is going to do with her fortune. Even though they have turned the ancestral home into a hotel, they have also closed it for the week for the birthday.
Elizabeth and Rose's reunion is a happy one, as they grew to be friends when Rose was working as a kitchen maid and Elizabeth was the countess. Despite their opposite statuses, they grew close and are still so to this day. When Elizabeth arrives at the party wearing the Frockmorton Sapphires, everyone is in awe. Beautiful, ostentatious, but still overwhelming. And when Elizabeth wants to show Bernie, Lily, and Rose the sapphires privately, they discover them missing.
But even more disturbing is when one of the party guests collapses at tea, and is later declared dead. But the worst part is it seems it was the chicken coronation sandwich that they ate -- and was prepared by Lily herself. Now she's a suspect in the murder, along with a several others. Calling her boyfriend Simon, who is working nearby but has taken a holiday, he arrives to help her find the person who committed the crime.
Even if the local police ask her to stay away, they seem to know that she won't, having investigated her past and discovering that she's involved herself in other murders. Yet Lily has an innate curiosity that won't let go, even as she's worried about a killer in hotel, her relationship with Simon, and who stole the sapphires. Will she discover the truth, or will she be put on ice forever?...
This is the sixth book in the series and I have read them all. I do try to write reviews without giving away any spoilers, and this one is no different. Lily is lost in England, mostly by the different driving methods, but still...and she doesn't know how to go about asking questions without it seeming like a true inquiry to the murder. Yet she wants to clear her name, and it won't be easy as she doesn't know these people, and many of them are related to Elizabeth, whom she herself has grown fond of in the short time she's known her.
But Lily does what she does best, and with the help of others around her, she perseveres until she gets to the truth. And the truth isn't what anyone would expect, nor want to know in the long run. Yet sometimes truth is strange, and sometimes killers aren't what you expect them to be. But in the end, Lily finds out a bit more about herself, and has something to look forward to when she returns to the states.
I urge you not to have a peek at the ending, as you will enjoy this book more if you read it straight through. The final clue comes and should you find it, you will find the murderer as well. I loved this book and look forward to the next in the series. Highly recommended.
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley but this in no way influenced my review.
More on Vicki Delany's Books: https://www.fantasticfiction.com/d/vicki-delany/
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