The Maid of Kent Murders

Peter and Georgia Marsh #9

by Amy Myers

Maid of Kent pub sits in the village of Cobshaw and at the centre of controversy.

The local descendants of the Plantagenets and the Tudors each have an eye on the property, but for different reasons. The current owner Percival needs to sell, but will only let it go to another Planter, as the descendants of the Plantagenets call themselves. Hotelier Howard Greene claims Plantagenet blood and wants to add the property to his long empire. But is he really descended from the kings who once ruled England?

Local historian Brenda Randall knows everything there is to know about Cobsham and its inhabitants, including the history of the actual maid of Kent, Cecilia. What is now the pub was once her ancestral home, Cobshaw Court, and Brenda wants to restore the home and make it a stately inn. But her plans are soon interrupted.

Then a windstorm uncovers a burial site, and Marsh and Daughter, the local authors and sleuths, have a new mystery to solve. But who was buried under the old copper beech? And how is it connected to the endless fighting between the Planters and the Tudors in the picture- perfect village of Cobshaw?

Amy Myers has been a full-time writer since 1988, and has written a wide range of novels from historical sagas and contemporary romance to crime. She is married to an American and lives in Kent. Many of her novels have been published under the name of Harriet Hudson. Amy is also the author of the successful Tom Wasp murder mystery series.

275 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 5, 2022

About the author

aka Laura Daniels, Harriet Hudson

Amy Myers was born in Kent, where she still lives, although she has now ventured to the far side of the Medway. For many years a director of a London publishing company, she is now a full-time writer. Married to an American, she lived for some years in Paris, where, surrounded by food, she first dreamed up her Victorian chef detective Auguste Didier. Currently she is writing her contemporary crime series starring Jack Colby, car detective, and in between his adventures continuing her Marsh & Daughter series and her Victorian chimnney sweep Tom Wasp novels.

Series:
* Peter and Georgia March
* Auguste Didier
* Tom Wasp

Anthologies edited:
* After Midnight Stories

Reviews

[Ivonne Rovira]

I did not believe I’d ever see another entry in Amy Myers’ beloved Marsh and Daughter series. Murder on the Old Road and Murder in Abbot's Folly both came out in 2011. And then nothing. I read and loved Dancing with Death, which featured cook Nell Drury, but it wasn’t the same.

So what a wonderful Christmas present! I discovered that Myers had finally released a ninth novel featuring retired policeman-turned-cold-case author Peter Marsh and his capable daughter Georgia Marsh Frost. The pair visit a pub called the Maid of Kent in preparation of holding a concert and banquet there. Soon thereafter, a storm blows down a beech tree and reveals a long-dead corpse. The body is identified as a Shakespearean actor who disappeared in 1959.

As usual, Myers plots a tantalizing plot that keeps you guessing to the end. Peter and Georgia investigate hoping to make the case into another true-crime book, but their sleuthing leads to danger in the here and now. How I’ve missed Peter and Georgia! Please, please, Ms. Myers. Don’t make us wait another 11 years for the tenth novel!

[Alayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this 3 and a half stars. It was interesting enough, but I had worked out the ins and outs of what had happened about halfway through and was just getting annoyed at the private detectives for not seeing it! Then there was the annoyance of the murder victim being variously described as step-brother and brother-in-law when in actual fact he was a half-brother which was clear at the beginning.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Maid of Kent public house in Cobshaw, an area divided into Tudors and Plantagenets. Then a skeleton is discovered under an uprooted tree. That of actor Sir John Wilbourne who disappeared in 1958 aged 44. The Marshes decide to investigate. The police become more involved when another body is found.
An enjoyable modern mystery

[Allyson Dyar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the second Peter and George Marsh book which I found as good as the first one that I read. My only complaint is that it's a fairly long book.

The pair have chosen the Maid of Kent pub and out door concert facility to put on the concert in honor of Georgia's brother and Peter's late son. What they didn't realize is that the pub is the center of a fuss between descendants of the Plantagenets and the Tudors. A violent windstorm uncovers a burial site, which everyone kinda hopes is the actual Maid of Kent. The bones turn out to be that of a Shakespearean actor who had disappeared in 1959.

As I mentioned, this book was rather long, but satisfying to read although I thought the end of the book was a bit too neatly wrapped up, but that's a very small quibble.

Well worth reading, especially for fans of the series.