The Snuffbox Affair. Appleby & Hedges, #1

The Snuffbox AffairA Peregrine Appleby & Hedges MysteryPeregrine Appleby is a young man of mild surprise and permanent bewilderment, a freelance poet whose career has the unfortunate habit of driving literary journals into receivership. He lives a life of quiet comfort in Mayfair, largely because his valet, Hedges, possesses a "prospective competence" that borders on the supernatural. Hedges doesn't just pack trunks; he anticipates crises, manages aunts, and ensures Peregrine never accidentally attends a Royal garden party in a burgundy dressing gown.
When a formidable summons arrives from Aunt Drusilla (a woman whose disapproval can wilt potted plants at forty feet), Peregrine is whisked away to the village of Lower Swatting-on-the-Wold for the annual fete. The stakes are deceptively low-until they aren't. What begins as a simple weekend of reading Keats to elderly residents and dodging "beastly" rural duties quickly spirals into a high-stakes horticultural heist involving:A Ruby-Encrusted Snuffbox: Accidentally surrendered as a tea-room tip.
The Grand Marrow Competition: Where forty-pound vegetables are treated with the reverence of holy relics. A Runaway Daughter: Working undercover as a waitress named Mabel. Tippy Tollimache: A best friend currently obsessed with the scientific development of a waterproof monocle. When the missing snuffbox is secreted inside the village's prize-winning marrow, Peregrine must rely on Hedges's cryptographic past and Tippy's surprising skill with a lockpick to prevent a social catastrophe.
To make matters more complicated, the arrival of the sharp-witted Cressida Vane-who reads Virgil in the original Latin while driving a supercharged sports car-forces Peregrine to confront something even more terrifying than his Aunt: his own feelings. In a world of beeswax seals, midnight garden raids, and moral croquet, can Hedges orchestrate a reconciliation between a rigid magistrate and his daughter while ensuring the snuffbox returns to the right pocket?