Urn Burial

 Urn Burial by Kerry Greenwood (1996) 187 pages

In this murder mystery set in the late 1920s, Phryne Fisher and her entourage (her maid/companion Dot, her Chinese lover, Lin Chung, and his manservant, Li Pen) have almost arrived at a houseparty at a Victorian mansion on a foggy night, when they hear a gunshot. They stop the car and end up saving a parlourmaid who works there. The traumatized young woman won't say what has happened.

Others in attendance are a Major who mistreats his wife, two young men, a woman trying to match up her athletic daughter with one of the men, a woman who is a romance writer, a poet, and two old women. There are a number of servants and employees, as well as an eccentric old guy named Dingo Harry, who likes to travel freely on others' properties, including the massive caves underneath.

Suspicious things continue to occur: Phryne, riding a horse on a path her host usually took, getting thrown when the horse runs into a trip wire; warning letters to the host; small urns being left in the some of the guests' rooms; and then a servant strangled to death (but the body removed before anyone but Phryne had seen it). What is going on? Phryne teams up with Lin Chung this time, with the added intrigue of the house being cut off by floodwaters, and a large group trip into the nearby caves.