A DEATH IN THE ASYLUM (Caroline Dunford)

I accidentally picked book #3 in this series, but I still enjoyed it! Euphemia Martins (or St. John - I'm actually not sure which is her real name, but I think St, John is the alias she uses to conceal her true identity) is the disowned granddaughter of an earl now working as a housekeeper for Bertram Stapleford.  After Bertram's new home shows signs of imminent collapse he moves temporarily with some of his staff to the family estate, home of his brother Richard and scene of some previous evil doings involving murder and mayhem involving Euphemia and handsome butler Rory, who has strong feeling for Euphemia and is happy to see her back at Stapleford Hall. 

After an unfortunate séance, mayhem begins again with an attack on Lord Richard's housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson, who had a very strange reaction to a "spirit" communicating a message to "Mummy." Euphemia is injured by the blue-eyed attacker when the household responds to Mrs. Wilson's cries of alarm in the night.  She, Bertram, and Rory, along with self-serving society gossip columnist Beatrice Wilton begin an investigation of what may have led to Mrs.Wilson's assault.  Miss Wilton is trying to advance her career by exposing improprieties at local asylums, but she also has her cap set at the malleable and somewhat clueless Bertram, who also seems to hold Euphemia in great esteem (a mutual feeling, it appears).  Eventually Euphemia, Bertram, and Rory (sans the unfortunate Miss Wilton) ramp up their efforts to track down the family secrets that seem to be tied to 2 local asylums.

I would definitely recommend reading this series in order.  While Dunford adds footnotes to explain some of the references to he previous 2 novels in the series, there is a bit too much background information that relates to the current story.  You can enjoy them on their own, because she does do a good job of trying to cover all of her references to previous goings-on, but the best idea would be to just read them in order.  You'll like them!