Etiquette for Killers and Lovers

Summer 1964. Eastport is a tiny coastal town in Maine, where everything is governed by propriety—and where, in the eyes of one’s neighbors, reputation can be worth more than money. Twenty-six-year-old Billy McKeddy, a linguist with a degree, should be pursuing a career, but instead she hems skirts at a tailor’s shop, devours Jane Austen, detective stories, and adventures, and is slowly going mad with boredom among impeccably well-mannered people.

One mistake at the post office flips her life upside down: Billy receives someone else’s letter—a piercing declaration of love, and in the envelope lies an engagement ring. She doesn’t rush to return the find: at last, a true mystery has entered her daily routine. But soon, at a reception for the local elite, Billy encounters the body of the woman the letter was meant for—and she becomes a key witness: the last person to see her alive, and the first to find her dead.

Everyone comes under suspicion, and the closer Billy gets to the answers, the stronger the feeling grows that someone is watching her. The one who has always been able to stay unnoticed suddenly understands: the role of heroine is fitting her—though it may require stepping over the rules of good breeding.

Anna FitzGerald Healy has written a story she couldn’t find on the shelves herself: a sharp blend of an intense thriller and a romantic comedy. Her debut novel shifts effortlessly across registers—from a puzzle in the spirit of Agatha Christie, to a love plot and onward to a comedy of manners in the style of Jane Austen: each chapter opens with a piece of etiquette advice, and sometimes choosing the wrong fork seems more terrifying than committing murder.

Listen to Marina Lisovets’s elegant performance of an ironic mystery where social manners become weapons no less dangerous than a blade.

Press about the book:

“An unusual blend of detective and romantic story: chapters open with epigraphs in the spirit of Emily Post, and drawing-room intrigues bring Jane Austen to mind. Beneath smiles and sharp retorts, the dark side of human nature emerges. Romantic suspense, filled with humor and a constant sense of threat” – Kirkus Reviews

“An enchanting novel that’s hard to put down: sparkling banter, cutting remarks, and unforgettable characters. Anna FitzGerald Healy flawlessly combines a fluttering romance with a detective story built to perfect timing. The characters seem to come alive on the page. The ending makes you hope that we’re not saying goodbye to Billy McKeddy just yet” – Historical Novels Review