An Appetite for Violets: A Novel

About this book

"Thats how it is for us servants. No one pays you much heed; mostly youre invisible as furniture. Yet you overhear a conversation here and add a little gossip there. Then you find something something you should not have found." Irrepressible Biddy Leigh under-cook at forbidding Mawton Hall only wants to marry her childhood sweetheart and set up her own tavern. But when her elderly master marries young Lady Carinna Biddy is unwittingly swept up in a world of scheming secrets and lies. Forced to accompany her new mistress to Italy she documents her adventures and culinary discoveries in an old household book of recipes The Cooks Jewel. Biddy grows intrigued by her fellow travelers but her secretive and unconventional mistress is the most intriguing of all. In London Biddy finds herself attracted to her mistresss younger brother. In France she discovers her mistresss dark secret. At last in Italy Biddy becomes embroiled in a murderous conspiracy knowing the secrets she holds could be a key to a better life or her downfall. Inspired by eighteenth-century household books of recipes and set at the time of the invention of the first restaurants An Appetite for Violets is a literary feast for lovers of historical fiction. Martine Baileys novel opens a window into the fascinating lives of servants while also delivering a suspenseful tale of obsession and betrayal.