Murder Room
35 total works
Retired professor Andrew Basnett had been at a loose end since he'd finished writing his book, and a country visit with friends seemed just the diversion he needed.
But when seven friends gather to welcome him to their village, conviviality soon turns to crime as guests suddenly start dying - and Basnett finds himself seeking a clever killer who is sure to strike again.
'Her fans will love it' Kirkus Reviews
One of the very last authors of detective fiction from the genre's "Golden Age" INDEPENDENT
Suicide or murder? Despite all indications to the contrary, Alec Methven had not eaten his last meal in solitude, and somebody was very anxious to conceal that fact.
As if one death on the beautiful island of Madeira was not enough, there was another. Peter Corey, who had found Methven's body, had a cast-iron alibi: he was on a plane to the island at the time of the death, en route to visit his old friend. But what of the second killing that so inexplicably occurred?
Whenever Felix, Virginia Freer's estranged husband, reappears in her life, murder does too. Even when temporarily incapacitated by an accident, Felix brings mystery with him.
This time it concerns Holly, orphaned daughter of a famous actress, who had come from Rome to stay with Virginia's friends, the Brightwells. Holly has disappeared, believed kidnapped, and distraught Ann Brightwell is prepared to sell her valuables to meet the ransom demand. But Felix senses something odd about the kidnapping and is convinced the ransom shouldn't be paid . . .
When Holly Dunthorne returns home to the village of Roydon Saint Agnes she finds that a friend, Marcus Meriden, has been accused of beating up an old man. There are witnesses who say they saw it happen, and the only one who might possibly clear him stays stubbornly silent.
But when murder happens and a newcomer to the village seems to attract everyone's attention, Holly finds everything has changed, not least her old friends, the Meridens, among whom she feels herself a stranger - and afraid.
Alice Robertson was now too old and frail to cope with the stairs. But when Charles Robertson returned from an evening stroll he found something had made her tackle them once more - with tragic results.
There were few people with a motive for the old lady's death. But then a rumour spread that in the house, forgotten for generations, were objects that had belonged to the first James Robertson. Someone had rediscovered them, recognised their value - and killed for them.
When Sam Partlett joined the staff at the Institute of Pomology at King's Weltham, he brought nothing but discord. But it was not Sam who was found dead at the Institute, throat slashed with one of the laboratory razors.
In the close-knit scientific community, Inspector Day quietly sets to work to probe the secrets of people busy with different experiments - but has someone carried out an experiment with death?
'One of the best contemporary writers of civilised murder mysteries' The Times
Retired Andrew Basnett returns to Knotlington, where he once worked as an assistant lecturer, to an old friend who needs some advice. Two years earlier a member of the Fine Arts Department was murdered. Yet the killer had been caught and sentenced, so why should Andrew's friend need help?
Many believed Stephen Sharland, who is serving a life sentence for the murder, was innocent. But before Andrew even begins making enquiries, there is another murder, and Andrew finds him in a complex web of emotion, struggling to sift truth from lies.
The 'Decayed Gentlewoman', Colin and Ginny had called her as children - a disregarded painting badly in need of cleaning, which later vanished.
But the 'Decayed Gentlewoman' re-entered their grown-up lives with a bang. The manner of its reappearance sparked a train of suspicion about the true nature of past events. And now Dr Colin Locke, with his childhood emotions vividly reawakened, finds himself drawn into a maze of theft, legal complexities and murder.
Professor Alistair Dirke thought himself a reasonable man - he could scarcely acknowledge the suspicion that was beginning to grow in his mind every time he saw his wife Rose with Paul Eckleston . . . Paul seemed to be there very often these days.
Yet soon a more terrible suspicion was to grow and spread through the little community of Rollway, where the Dirkes had lived in peace with their neighbours. A valuable collection of coins goes missing and then a man is murdered.
Andrew Basnett, retired botany professor, accompanies an old friend, whose sister has received a blackmail letter, to her home in a Berkshire village. The letter had obviously been put in the wrong envelope, but it seems to indicate that a murder has been committed in Lindleham, where, strangely, several people are missing.
But as Andrew quietly investigates the neighbours, the realisation dawns that his friends, too, have something to hide.
It is at a party that Richard Hedon first hears about the mysterious Paul Clyro and his sudden disappearance. Clyro had been a scientist, doing secret work on viruses with a colleague named Wolsingham. But when Wolsingham committed suicide, Clyro found the body and promptly vanished without a trace.
Richard's curiosity is piqued, and he follows Clyro's trail - all the way to Madeira, where a man known as Gavin Chilmark is living a comfortable life free from any breath of suspicion . . .
When Caroline leaves hospital her sister Fenella insists that she must convalesce in her house in the West Country. But, in the event, Caroline's visit is far from restful.
Fenella's husband is moody, excitable, reckless and inexplicably affluent, and soon the brooding atmosphere explodes into violence and murder . . .
'Her great virtue, exceeding even her meatily logical plotting and gift of hitting often on really intriguing situations, is her portrayal of people' The Times
Retired headmaster Malcolm Chance and his wife, Frances, have settled down in the quiet village of Ravenswood, where the greatest excitement revolves around the newest production of the local dramatic society. Until, that is, the Chances' next-door neighbour is murdered.
When another murder takes place and the investigation unfolds, it becomes clear that there are many secrets in this small village - infidelity, blackmail, unrequited love, even sexual perversion - and many reasons to kill.
Helena Sebright is given a three-month job in the newly independent African state of Uyowa. She is to escort a seven-year-old girl to stay with her grandparents there, and to bring her back to her parents, in England, at the end.
It seems a lucky break. But Helena is not to know she will become involved in a dangerous criminal enterprise. Against the background of a disintegrating state and imminent bloody revolution, Helena finds herself caught up in a series of mysteries, catastrophes - and gruesome deaths . . .
Alex Summerill was the confidante of thousands of readers of the daily newspaper to which she contributed a weekly advice column. Her warm-hearted counsel went out all over England to distracted lovers, women with faithless husbands, men with faithless wives.
Occasionally she even received letters confessing to serious crimes. Realising what a goldmine her correspondence could be for anyone with the slightest penchant for blackmail, she took exceptional care of the letters sent to her. But it is one letter that doesn't reach her that precipitates murder . . .
While her faithful friend Virginia watched by the bedside, rich old Mrs Arliss passed away peacefully in her sleep - and left behind a legacy of violent death. A greedy niece, a pompous nephew, a hopeful distant relation and a hungry solicitor each expect a tidy sum out of her estate, but all they are in for is murder.
A valuable collection of miniatures is missing, the sinister caretaker couple have vanished and a body is lying stone dead on the drawing room floor . . .
Roberta Ellison lives in Madeira where she had settled with her late husband after being crippled in a motor accident. Domestic help was easy to come by and the climate was ideal.
Then her sister Camilla comes to the island to help her to find a companion, bringing problems of her own with her, problems that at first seem trivial, but that soon involve the sisters in a violent and mystifying spiral of events. As more newcomers appear, so Camilla's history begins to unfold and it emerges that all is not as it seems . . . and then murder strikes.
Henrietta Cosgrove's eightieth birthday luncheon had gone very well, her five stepchildren all gathered to celebrate in her lovely old thatched house. But then Henrietta dropped a bombshell.
To shore up her dwindling income, she proposed to sell two landscapes by a painter whose work had recently appreciated. That night the house burned down. When the pictures were found to be missing it looked as though the fire was intended to cover the theft. But what the fire uncovered was far more dramatic . . .
Martha Crayle trusted everyone, so when the frightened girl arrived at the National Guild for the Welfare of Unmarried Mothers on that drizzly, cold autumn afternoon, Martha gladly took her to the spacious Victorian house where in harder times she had taken in lodgers. But her one remaining boarder, grumpy Mr Syme, was sure the girl was lying.
And the very next day, when Martha brought home a saucy girl with lilac lipstick, Mr Syme was positive she was lying too. Martha still wasn't convinced - until one of the unfortunate girls involved them all in a sinister murder.