Murder at Farrington Hall by Ann Sutton

 Lady Dorothea Dorchester is a fashion plate and trend setter in 1920's London. When she and her equally stylish sister are invited to attend a house party at the home of an old family friend, they are only too happy to accept. When they arrive, however, they find some of their old friends have changed for the worse. Some are drinking and others have large gambling debts.  Then someone is murdered.  When the police come, Lady Dorothea volunteers to help work with the chief inspector to find the villain.  But who could it be?  The staff are ruled out so the only suspects are all Dorothea's friends.  Could one of her friends really be a killer?

I picked up this book to read on my flight from Utah to Virginia to visit my daughter.  It was the perfect vacation read. The plot is interesting and the author does a good job giving each of the house party guests motives and incriminating evidence.  The author also pulls in fun details about the time period and setting. The pre-depression 1920's clung to the old class distinctions,  but the war had opened the door to more social equity and acceptance. It was a time of decadence and indulgence, and Lady Dorothea straddles the old and new age nicely. (2020, 170 p) 

P.S. fun story

I happened on this book while I was working at my Friends of the Library Used Book Sale.  We had thousands of books that we were setting out for the sale. One of the Friends volunteers picked it up and said, "Look, a copy of my book!"  I had no idea she was an author. I went to see, and it looked like the kind of book I would like, so I bought it for $.50 and had Ann sign it for me.