Murder is afoot is the sedate English town of Royal Tunbridge Wells … and the crime may be brewing in a tea pot!

Nigel Owen is having a rotten year. Downsized from a cushy management job at an insurance company in London, he is forced to accept a temporary post as managing director of the Royal Tunbridge Wells Tea Museum. Alas, he regrets living in a small town in Kent, he prefers drinking coffee (with a vengeance), and he roundly dislikes Flick Adams, PhD, an American scientist recently named the museum’s curator.

But then, the wildly unexpected happens. Dame Elspeth Hawker, the museum’s chief benefactor, keels over a board meeting—the apparent victim of a fatal heart attack. With the Dame’s demise, the museum’s world-famous collection is up for grabs, her cats, dog, and parrot are living at with Flick and Nigel—and the two prima donnas find themselves facing professional ruin.

But Flick—who knows a thing or two about forensic science—is convinced that Dame Elspeth did not die a natural death. As Flick and Nigel follow the clues—including a cryptic Biblical citation—they discover that a crime perpetrated more than a century ago sowed the seeds for a contemporary murder.

“This is a little gem for you who relish detail (modern and historical), cleverly plotted and brimming with Kent native Janet’s eye for Tunbridge Wells.”

—Poisoned Pen Book News

“A charming whodunit with two likable sleuths at the helm.”
—Mindy Starns Clark, author of the Million Dollar Mysteries Series

“I’ve found a new guilty pleasure in life: Cozy Mysteries. And Ron and Janet Benrey have more than capably fed my new habit with their delightful book, Dead as a Scone.”

—Lisa Samson, Christy award-winning author of The Church.