Murder in Haxford: A Pignon Scorbion Mystery

by Rick Bleiweiss

Overview

Pignon Scorbion is back for the second installment in his bestselling and award-winning historical mystery series! Perfect for fans of Hercule Poirot and Enola Holmes.

A delightful day in 1910 at the Haxford Spring Fair turns horrifying and deadly when a balloonist plummets to the earth from the blue skies above. However unlikely, it’s soon discovered that this unfortunate corpse was not done in by his precipitous plunge but instead from an arrow fatally lodged in his chest. Unraveling the twisted web of intrigue that took the man’s life requires the expert skills of Haxford’s brilliant and sartorially splendid Chief Inspector Pignon Scorbion.

But the quirky detective is not alone in this task. Aiding Scorbion in his dogged pursuit of truth and justice are his carefully chosen deputies: six quirky and unconventional thinkers from the town who meet regularly with Scorbion in Calvin Brown’s barbershop to unmask ne’er-do-wells and solve local crimes. Since his move to the charming village, the enigmatic detective has also realized his growing dependence upon its bookshop’s owner. Lovely and quick-witted Thelma Smith not only helps Pignon with his criminal cases, but she seems well on her way to unlocking the mysteries of his heart.

Not everyone in Haxford is so cooperative. Faustin Hardcastle from the Gazette is bound and determined to ruin the town’s new officer of the law with slanderous news reports of failure and misconduct. And other residents of the picture-perfect village do not welcome the inspector’s inquiring eye and expert nose for trouble. When they engage in decidedly unquaint activities like gambling, revenge, forgery, and loan sharking, it falls to Pignon Scorbion to reveal their deceit and criminal misdeeds—all in a good day’s work. Once done, he and Thelma can then thoroughly enjoy a delicious dinner at the Bridgehouse Inn.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9798212244602
Publisher:	Blackstone Publishing
Publication date:	02/21/2023
Series:	The Pignon Scorbion Series , #2
Sales rank:	639,380
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Rick Bleiweiss has crafted the bestselling, award-winning Pignon Scorbion historical mystery series by blending his love of the past with the twisty deliciousness of a whodunit. He has recently also contributed a wonderful story to the mystery anthology Hotel California.

Before becoming an author, Rick started his career in music as a rock performer, Grammy-nominated producer (of over fifty records), and record company senior executive, working with Clive Davis, Melissa Etheridge, the Backstreet Boys, Kiss, U2, Whitney Houston, the BeeGees, and other industry legends.

Since 2006 as a publishing company executive, he has acquired works by noted authors and celebrities including James Clavell, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Rex Pickett, Al Roker, Dale Brown, Robert Downey Jr., Leon Uris, Catherine Coulter, and P. C. Cast, among many others. Follow Rick & Scorbion at www.RickBleiweiss.com

Editorial Reviews

Another amazing tale in the Pignon Scorbion murder mystery series. Murder in Haxford was a savory delight to read…an amazingly well-rounded adventure.”

host of Online for Authors and other podcasts Jennifer Palmer

Pignon is in fine fettle in this whodunit in England of 1910. As always, Bleiweiss challenges the reader to try to keep pace. Don’t miss this fun read.”

author of Reckoning Catherine Coulter

11/28/2022

Early in Bleiweiss’s charming sequel to 2022’s Pignon Scorbion and the Barbershop Detectives, likewise set in 1910 England, Police Chief Insp. Pignon Scorbion witnesses a tragedy at the Haxford Town Fair and Feast: the crash of a hot-air balloon. But the dead balloonist inside the smashed gondola didn’t perish from the fall—he was killed by an arrow to the chest. The case presents multiple puzzles, starting with the corpse’s identity. The woman who first identifies it as her husband changes her mind, and there’s no simple explanation as to how the murderer could have shot the fatal arrow while the balloon was aloft. Furthermore, only six balloons were scheduled to fly that day; the downed one constituted a seventh. Scorbion, aided by his eccentric group of amateur investigators who congregate at Calvin Brown’s Barbershop, including a crime reporter, a printing press mechanic, and a bookstore owner, seek to get to the bottom of the multiple mysteries. Bleiweiss keeps things breezy while making it fair for readers to anticipate the solution. Golden age fans will be pleased. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Pignon Scorbion is back in Murder in Haxford—a captivating and effortlessly charming return to the golden age of detective fiction. Fans of the genre will find Rick Bleiweiss firing on all cylinders with deft plotting, rich characters, and the heart-pounding twists that are the hallmark of a true master. It is not to be missed.”

bestselling author of the Treadstone Series Joshua Hood

The second novel in [Bleiweiss’s] series of parody/pastiches of golden-age detective stories…this one is great fun.”

Booklist

Murder in Haxford, book two in the Pignon Scorbion series by the talented Rick Bleiweiss, is such an exciting escape! The mysteries will leave you breathless, as the focus of suspects changes rapidly. You’ll be flipping pages trying to help Pignon figure out, ‘whodunnit!’ The characters are fascinating and believable, and the descriptions of the town of Haxford during Edwardian England will make you want to jump through time! I could hear the clip-clop of horses on the cobblestone streets! You don’t want to miss this one! Absolutely delightful!”

USA Today bestselling author Beth Albright

Fans of detective fiction take note: filled with wit, charm, and cunning, Rick Bleiweiss’s Pignon Scorbion series should be at the top of everyone’s list of suspects. I loved Murder in Haxford.”

#1 international bestselling author of Jack Reache Andrew Child

Murder in Haxford, Rick Bleiweiss’s sophomore entry in the Pignon Scorbion series, fleshes out Inspector Scorbion in a more expansive way and brings him even more three-dimensionally to life, rooting him now in our literary unconscious. After a sparkling debut, Bleiweiss has exceeded expectations in this second book and hoisted it to new heights with this exquisitely wrought page-turner. Plying his trade in the cozy mystery, Bleiweiss may be one of the few writers in this genre conceivably possessed of genius.”

bestselling author of Sideways and The Archivist Rex Pickett

Death by arrow? Poison? And art forgeries? It truly takes a Holmes type of detective to solve the crime. A brilliant investigator, Pignon Scorbion, looks for means, motive, and opportunity. With twists and turns, he finds the culprit and solves the crime. A great story by Rick Bleiweiss!”

USA Today bestselling author and editor of Hotel C Don Bruns

Murder in Haxford is another delightful romp through Edwardian England as Chief Inspector Pignon Scorbion and a colorful cast of supporting characters grapple with murder and mayhem. Author Rick Bleiweiss conjures up a gentler, more civilized era—an age when even brutal crimes can be solved by keen intellect, close observation, and a shrewd appreciation of human nature. Bravo!”

New York Times bestselling coauthor of Red Phoenix Patrick Larkin

If there was a murder at Downton Abbey, Pignon Scorbion would be right at home investigating the crime. A perfect period piece to cozy up with and match wits with the nattily attired Chief of Police.”

TV personality and bestselling author Al Roker

Rick Bleiweiss is a magnificent storyteller who occupies two worlds, those of the golden age of the detective story led by Agatha Christie, John Dickson Carr, Rex Stout, and the heirs such as Anthony Horowitz, P. D. James, and Alexander McCall Smith. His two books, Pignon Scorbion & the Barbershop Detectives and Murder in Haxford, are the best of these two worlds of crime fiction and make for compulsive reading. We live in an uncertain world in many respects, even to the extent where the writer you read yesterday might try something so different that’ll leave you scratching your head and asking why change a unique recipe that works. What better way is there to spend an evening than with two books that have the creativity of a Monet, the consistency of a Swiss clock, and atmosphere of a film by Welles.”

author and managing editor of Strand Magazine Andrew F. Gulli

2022-12-14
Two more mysteries for Chief Inspector Pignon Scorbion and his supportive sidekicks in a 1910 English village.

The first and more arresting of the cases involves a murder than may not have even taken place in Haxford. When a hot air balloon crashes in the village fairground, Scorbion discovers Charlie Thornton, its only passenger, shot to death with an arrow. Not long before, Thornton and his friend Ronald Parker, convinced that Brookdale blacksmith Oscar Sneed had fleeced them in a poker game, shot him with a crossbow, left his body in a ditch, and obligingly provided each other with alibis that prevented Chief Inspector Jayson from arresting them. Now who could have discharged an arrow into Thornton and then escaped without a trace? The answer, sad to say, is a good deal less interesting than the question. In the briefer and less elaborate second case, loan shark and painter Archie Williams’ tonsorial session with barbershop owner Calvin Brown’s employee Yves ends abruptly when he’s found dead in the chair, the victim of massive doses of poison presumably administered in the paints he used to produce his works. Since laborer Owen Johnson, gambling plumber Bertram Tilson, and jeweler Gerald Evans all owed him hefty sums, there are suspects aplenty, and the one Scorbion fastens on isn’t especially surprising. The path to the solution is strewn with conversational gems like Scorbion’s admonition to hostile newspaper publisher Faustin Hardcastle: “Throw your darts as well as you can at the bullseye that you perceive to be me, but be assured that I will never be intimidated by you.”

Soothing retro puzzles for fans who long for the return of Hercule Poirot.

Kirkus Reviews