Books like Death sits down to dinner by Tessa Arlen

In the glittering heights of Edwardian London, Lady Montfort receives an invitation to a dinner hosted by her friend Hermione Kingsley, patroness of England’s largest charity and celebrant of Winston Churchill’s 39th birthday. The gathering draws the nation’s most prominent families and the charismatic First Lord of the Admiralty. When the meal concludes, a hand‑asleep gentleman lies dead on the walnut‑lined floor, a knife between his ribs. Summoned from Iyntwood, Mrs. Jackson joins Lady Montfort to sift through the polished veneer of high society. Together they trace suspects among the guests and the staff—blending etiquette with investigation as the two women navigate secret rivalries, charitable ambitions, and a web of deceit threatening to strike again. Their pursuit of truth moves through the opulent dining halls, the hidden corridors of a grand London home, and the bustling philanthropic circles that define the era, testing their wits against time in an elegant race to prevent another tragedy.

First publish date: 2016