Cosy Crime
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These stories follow in the tradition of Miss Marple, Albert Campion and Lord Peter Wimsey and most often, the crime takes place "off stage" and death is usually very quick. So, accompany these detectives through the pages and follow the clues as they unravel the mystery and find the culprit.
Hiss
and Hers by M. C. Beaton
Agatha has fallen in love again. This time it's the local gardener, George Marston, she has her eye on. But competition for his attention abounds. When George is a no-show at a charity ball Agatha goes looking for him and finds he has been murdered, having been bitten by a poisonous snake and buried in a compost heap
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Speaking
from Among the Bones by Alan Bradley
It is almost Easter in Bishop's Lacey, and the villagers are holding their breath as the tomb of St Tancred is about to be opened after 500 years. As luck would have it, it's 11-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce who is first at the scene. However, the body she finds lying there is clearly not that of a desiccated saint. For a start there's the pool of fresh blood, and then there's the gasmask, from under which a shock of golden hair identifies the corpse as that of Mr Collicutt, St Tancred's celebrated organist. Despite her tender years, Flavia is no stranger to murder - but even she is baffled by the circumstances of Collicutt's death.
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Oscar
Wilde and the Murders at Reading Gaol by Gyles Brandreth
Dieppe,1897. Oscar Wilde, poet, playwright, novelist, raconteur and ex-convict, has fled the country after his release from Reading Gaol. Tonight he is sharing a drink and the story of his cruel imprisonment with a mysterious stranger. He has endured a harsh regime: the treadmill, solitary confinement, censored letters, no writing materials. Yet even in the midst of such deprivation, Oscar's astonishing detective powers remain undiminished.
Click here to find and request copies of "Oscar Wilder and the Murders at Reading Gaol"
Dying
in the Wool: a Kate Shackleton mystery by Frances Brody
Bridgestead is a quiet village. Pretty and remote, nothing exceptional happens, except for the day when Joshua Braithwaite, goes missing in dramatic circumstances, never to be heard of again. Now Joshua's daughter is getting married and wants one last attempt at finding her father.
Click here to find and request copies of "Dying in the Wool"
A
Colourful Death by Carola Dunn
Eleanor Trewynn is a recently retired widow who has moved to the small village of Port Mabyn in Cornwall. Neither frail nor retiring, after a lifetime of travelling the world, she's ready for an uneventful life with her dog and friends in this quiet town. Unfortunately, excitement seems to happen around her.
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The
Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith
Written under a pseudonym by J.K. Rowling, this gripping, elegant mystery is steeped in the atmosphere of London. A war veteran wounded both physically and psychologically, Cormoran Strike's life is in disarray but the case he is working on gives him a lifeline, despite coming at a personal cost.
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Gently
Floating by Alan Hunter
Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing - that's if you call having too many potential murder suspects a good thing. What George Gently has to work out is which of them had the cold blooded nerve to smash the victim's skull and dump him in the river.
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The
Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith
It is said that beauty runs skin deep, and as Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi survey the havoc wreaked by Violet Sephotho in her attempts to drive her rival's Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon out of business, they are forced to conclude that beneath her groomed exterior lies a wicked person. More happily, Mma Makutsi and her husband Phuti Radiphuti are expecting a baby. However, conflict is brewing between their relatives who believe in the old ways and those who favour a more relaxed parenting style. And there is the controversial question of the child's name, too. Mma Ramotswe needs all her tact and intuition to restore harmony and see that right prevails.
Click here to find and request copies of "The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon"
Malice
in the Cotswolds by Rebecca Tope
Thea Osborne and her canine companion Hepzie travel to the isolated village of Snowshill for their next assignment, house-sitting Hyacinth House for the mysterious Yvonne Parker. Something doesn't feel right to Thea, who is ill at ease in the village, and soon her intuition is proved to be right.
Click here to find and request copies of "Malice in the Cotswolds"
Death
in Florence by Marco Vichi
Florence, October 1966. The rain is never-ending. When a young boy vanishes on his way home from school the police fear the worst, and Inspector Bordelli begins an increasingly desperate investigation. Then the flood hits. During the night of 4th November the swollen River Arno, already lapping the arches of the Ponte Vecchio, breaks its banks and overwhelms the city.
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Page last updated: 24th February 2014