Face Down in the Marrow Bone Pie: Kathy Lynn Emerson

Thia was the first of the Susanna Appleton mysteries. In this one we see the dynamics of the marriage between Sir Robert and Lady Susannah. They both do there own things and Susanna is the reason for Robert's sucess. Before Robert is sent to France on orders of the queen, he gets a letter notifiying him that the overseer of his estate in the north has died "face down in a marrow bone pie". Robert seems uninterested, but when a second letter comes after his departure stating they can't get a new landlord, Susanna heads there. She uncovers the murders behind the deaths of both Robert's father and the overseer. Lady Delhom. the neighbor ends up being the murderer as she was supposed to marry Robert's father years ago, but was thwarted. She does have a daughter by him after Robert is grown and left the nest. Her plot to kill all the remaining Appleton's is an attempt to securing the Appleton holdings for her daughter.