E. X Ferrars

Virginia Freer has had it with her sort-of-ex-husband's taste for drama. Yes, Marcus Avery was a dear old duffer who lived in Virginia's town. Yes, Lillian Pace, Felix Freer's neighbor in London, was a sweet old bird. Yes, it's terrible they were murdered, but we live in a naughty world. But look at the coincidences!-Felix insists. That unpleasant silversmith. That awful couple seeking revenge. These were not two separate murders, I tell you: There...

In this classic cozy mystery, a retired botany professor visits an English country manor house where a dinner party turns into a hunt for a killer.

The irresistible Andrew Basnett series may have been written in the 1980s and ‘90s, but its soul lies with the classic crime fiction of the 1930s. Here, for example, is A Hobby of Murder, with its setting at—wait for it—a classic country-house party, that

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"A retired professor finds that an amateur sleuth's work is never done, even on an Australian holiday in this cozy mystery with "a dandy plot" ( Publishers Weekly ). Andrew Basnett takes a break from his little English village to spend Christmas in the small Australia city of Adelaide. Visiting Tony, an old colleague with a newish wife, Basnett soon learns that a cloud hangs over the marriage. Jan, Tony's bride, is widely believed to have murdered...

Plans for peaceful seaside holidays rarely work out well in the world of classic British mysteries. Retired professor Andrew Basnett, for example, envisioning sandcastles and the blessings of a pale English sun on his pale English skin, is startled to meet his nephew, Peter, on the beach. He's more startled (and not entirely thrilled) when Peter gets him invited to dinner with a celebrity novelist. And he's extremely startled when the novelist's sister-in-law...

Against her better judgment, Virginia Freer has agreed to be a witness at an old friend's second wedding-against her judgment because the other witness is Felix, her sort-of-ex-husband. On the other hand, she does rather enjoy Felix…in small doses. Thank heavens for that, because little else about the wedding is enjoyable, from the oddly unwelcoming hostess to the vicious murder of the groom's father, shortly after the spectacularly dull reception....

Suicide or murder? Despite all indications to the contrary, Clare Methven's ex-husband 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 the first body had an iron cast alibi: he was on a plane to the island at the time of the first death..... but what of the other?

Vacationing on the island of Mull, Robin Nicholl becomes involved with the Wandering Widows, four women bedecked with diamonds and pearls, and curiously melancholy for ladies on holiday.