Julianna Deering. Death by the Book. Bethany, 2014.

This is a cozy mystery—provided that you define a cozy to include tales that have four murders in them. It is low key and pretty much nonviolent. We meet a number of interesting people. At one point in the novel, a character mentions author Dorothy Sayers and Lord Peter Wimsey, her famous detective creation. Death by the Book is a kind of hommage to Sayers. Like Lord Peter, Lord Drew Farthering, has turned into an amateur sleuth. Each murder gets closer to home, so others wonder if Drew is not the ultimate target.

As Peter Winsey tries to woo Harriet Vane, so Drew Farthering is trying to win the love of a expatriate American Madeleine Parker. Like some of Sayers’ stories, too, this is set in the early 1930s. It gets complicated because Madeleine’s Aunt Ruth, who prefers American gentlemen, is certain that Mr. Farthering has dishonorable intentions.

The mystery begins on nearly the very first page. Drew has an appointment with his lawyer to change his will (apparently some relatives of his had died in the first novel in this series). He finds the lawyer murdered with an unusual message written on a piece of paper attached to the man’s body by a hatpin.

Three other people in the area become murder victims, too. Each with a cryptic note stuck onto the body by a hatpin.

Why Death by the Book? Because each pinned message turns out to be a literary allusion. I am happy to say I recognized the second one (another reader had given away the first one before I read the book myself). However, even recognizing them does not necessarily have them make sense. That in itself is part of the mystery.

Ultimately, though, the notes will be clues to the killer’s identity. Fans of Jessica Fellowes, Downton Abbey, or Dorothy Sayers may get a kick out of this tale. Shakespeare aficionados might take it as a challenge.