Excerpt from An Appetite for Violets by Martine Bailey, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The stairs groaned as he climbed. He could give no name to what he feared. For whom was that sickening banquet laid out? And why would Carinna abandon Bengo? Reaching the first floor he entered the lesser rooms and found them all empty. Then he found a dressing room with water growing putrid in a ewer. Finally he faced a closed door with a brass handle. He guessed it was the finest room, the one with broad windows above the villa's entrance. He grasped the handle and swung it open.

Excerpted from An Appetite for Violets by Martine Bailey. Copyright © 2015 by Martine Bailey. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Dunne Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.