The Pigeon Pie Mystery

Author: Stuart, Julia

Brand: RANDOM HOUSE GROUP

Color: Multicolor

Edition: Illustrated

Binding: paperback

Format: Illustrated

Number Of Pages: 336

Release Date: 07-05-2013

Part Number: Illustrated

Details: Product Description
 When Indian Princess Alexandrina—nickname “Mink”—is left penniless by the sudden death of her father, Queen Victoria grants her a grace-and-favor home in Hampton Court Palace. Though it’s rumored to be haunted, Mink and her lady’s maid, Pooki, have no choice but to take the Queen up on her offer and join the palace’s eccentric collection of guests. But when a reviled General-Major dies after eating a pie Pooki made, it makes her the number one suspect in a murder investigation.  Not about to let her faithful servant hang, Mink begins an investigation of her own. . . only to discover that Hampton Court isn't such a safe place to live after all.  
Review
"Cracking a Julia Stuart novel is like opening the door of an old-fashioned English tearoom. A bell tinkles merrily, and you enter a cozy world all the more inviting for being slightly claustrophobic." —
The Washington Post
"With the wit of P.G. Wodehouse, the cunning of Agatha Christie, the tartness of Angela Thirkell and the Schadenfreude of Ruth Rendell - as well as her own startling originality of imagination - Stuart has blessed readers with a novel that's endlessly entertaining and ultimately tender. Even Mink's rescuer, dour old Queen Victoria, might have been amused." —
Richmond Times-Dispatch
"Quirky characters, a feisty protagonist, a clever mystery and the requisite historical tidbits combine for an amusing read." —
Kirkus Reviews"A delicate yet kooky romp. . . . As Mink investigates, she finds something surprising: a group of people filled less with malice than with a desire for love in a world that offers little of it. Their longing gives them a zany wisdom that helps Mink find her own place in the world
." —Oprah.com, "Book of the Week"

"The enchanting aspect of Julia Stuart's confections of books about English legends is that she does her historical homework, then tarts it up to poke the aristocracy in the eye." —
The Washington Times

"Fans of Stuart’s novel
The Tower, the Zoo, and the Tortoise will find the same wit on display. ." —
Publishers Weekly
About the Author
JULIA STUART is an award-winning journalist and the author of two previous novels,
The Tower, The Zoo, and the Tortoise and
The Matchmaker of Perigord. She lives in London.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Excerpted from the Hardcover Edition


Chapter I
An Elephant, a Funeral, and More Bad News



Monday, March 22, 1897


As the hail bounced on the carriage roof, Mink suddenly wondered whether she ought to buy mourning knickers. She thought of asking her maid, who had wept for the dead Maharaja almost as much as she had. But the sight of Pooki’s stockingless feet emerging from the bottom of her sari changed her mind. She turned back to the window to distract herself from the loathsome task ahead of her. Wiping away the condensation, she watched the shoppers on Regent Street, the gritty downpour toppling the ostrich feathers on their elegant hats.

The horses began to slow and came to a halt outside Jay’s, the mourning emporium. The Princess had walked past it during countless shopping trips, but never once imagined needing to go in. As she waited for the carriage door to open, she fiddled with the buttons on her gloves, avoiding the window display. But George, the second footman, whose woeful height and lamentable calves would normally have excluded him from such a position, took so long she wondered whether he had forgotten her. Finally the door opened. Lifting up her skirts, she climbed out, determined not to be sold a pair of mutes, for the funeral attendants hired by the bereaved for their doleful expressions had a reputation for unabashed drunkenness.

A doorbell never tinkled so mournfully as the one at Jay’s. A lump was sure to form in even a hangman’s throat at the sound of its pitiful wail. The Princess and the maid stood silently in the entrance, shrouded in black drapery, a vase of white lilies engul

EAN: 9780307947697

Package Dimensions: 8.0 x 5.2 x 0.9 inches

Languages: English