The Maids Secrect

By Rowan Banks

Hartwell Manor keeps its secrets well. So does Lucienne Vale.

When Evelyn Hartwell's husband is found dead in his locked study, the investigation turns her orderly, carefully managed life inside out. But it is not grief that unsettles her - it is the woman who tends her fires, leaves books on her reading table, and watches her with an attention no one has ever paid her before.

As Inspector Reid's inquiry closes in on the household, Evelyn discovers that Lucienne's past is darker and more dangerous than a borrowed name and a forged reference. A powerful man is watching from the shadows of the village inn. Agnes has delivered a lie to the investigation. And the evidence is being arranged - with great precision - to point at the one person Evelyn cannot afford to lose.

To clear Lucienne's name, Evelyn must do what she has always done best: notice the things other people miss. But this time, the stakes are not domestic. And the truth she is building toward will ask her to risk everything she has spent four careful years protecting.

A Gothic mystery romance set in a fog-bound English manor. For readers who like their suspense slow-burning, their love stories hard-won, and their heroines quietly, devastatingly precise.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GTFPVS13
• ISBN13: 9798253053249
• Release Date: March 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 394 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"