"London, 1953. Mrs Harriet Wallis is found guilty of the murder of her husband, Cecil. One year earlier, and Harriet's life is thrown into turmoil by the reappearance of a man she did not expect to ever see again. A new nanny, Jean Corbett, arrives at the Wallis household - a young woman still traumatised by the devastating loss of her entire family during the War. And two policemen come to the house investigating a theft at Mr Wallis's shipping firm. Thus, a chain of events is set in place, and when Mr Wallis makes the momentous decision to purchase a television set on which to watch the Coronation, his and Harriet's fates are sealed."--Publisher description.
On the eve of her hanging, Ruth Ellis wrote to a friend: 'I must close now but remember I am quite happy with the verdict, but not the way the story was told, there is so much that people don't know.' Ruth Ellis was the last woman to be hanged in Britain. This is her story. In July 1955 Ruth Ellis was sentenced to death for the shooting of her lover, motor-racing driver David Blakely. Barely three months later she was executed at Holloway prison. In this book, Robert Hancock sets the record straight. Using official documents including the transcript of her trial at the Old Bailey, he unlocks the full, secret background to the story of the last woman to be hanged in Britain. Meticulous and fair in its analysis, The Last Woman to be Hanged is an absorbing portrait of the tragic life of a young woman, a vivid snapshot of an era and a gripping account of a notorious case that shocked the nation.
A wealthy woman’s last will and testament draws together friends, family, a master felon, and a charming conman in this delightful mystery series debut. Mrs. Arliss was witty. Mrs. Arliss was delightful. But mostly, Mrs. Arliss was rich. And now, Mrs. Arliss is dead. Her friends and relations—gathered to shed a tear, knock back a post-funeral sherry, and determine what loot they’ve inherited—are horrified to discover that things are not as they might have wished. Only two people seem to have cared for Mrs. Arliss more than for her bank account and exquisite collection of eighteenth-century miniatures. One is her girlish secretary, the very model of a flustered ingenue. The other is Virginia Freer, who had in many ways been a second Arliss daughter. They should be free to mourn, but Virginia has a problem. The miniatures are missing and all clues point to her ex-husband Felix—a man who is charming, affectionate, and a double-dipped scoundrel.
A couple’s been separated for six years—but it doesn’t stop them from sleuthing together—in this British mystery by a CWA Lifetime Achievement Award winner. Virginia Freer has had it with her sort-of-ex-husband’s taste for drama. A shopkeeper who lived in Virginia’s town has been murdered, and Felix Freer’s neighbor in London, a sweet old bird, has too. The crimes took place miles apart. But look at the coincidences, Felix insists. That unpleasant silversmith. That awful couple seeking revenge. These were not two separate murders, according to him—there is Something going on. Virginia raises an eyebrow and sighs deeply: The world lost a second Olivier, she thinks, when Felix opted for gambling, mooching, and petty theft rather than the stage. But eventually even her relentless pragmatism gets worn down, and thank goodness, because there is, indeed, Something going on. And Felix and Virginia are just the duo to sort it out, chalk and cheese though they may be . . . “There are few detective-story writers so consistently good.” —Sunday Times
Academic conferences can be full of petty squabbles—and sometimes, not-so-petty ones. . . . “There are few detective-story writers so consistently good.” —Sunday Times Professor Andrew Basnett has returned to his old university for a meeting of the Botanical Association, an event that should be entirely benign, aside from the usual inflated egos and bickering. But he can’t help being just a little curious about Carl Judd, an artist who was murdered here just two years ago. And, of course, about Stephen Sharland, who’s in prison for the murder—even though no one thinks he did it, not even Judd’s widow. The rumors are flying, the tongues are wagging, and then the only witness to the crime gets murdered, too! It’s all too exciting—no, sorry, too terrible, too terrible for words. Thank heavens Andrew Basnett is on hand to weed out the gossip and dig for the taproot of truth . . .
Gentlemanly Robert Forsythe and his longtime PA "Sandy" Sanderson are sleuthing up a storm, investigating innocent victims who maybe weren’t so innocent after all… No, Katherine St. Croix was not a hoofer, but she also wasn’t the pathetic, angelic starveling that the wealthy Dancer clan imagined. In fact, she was a talented con artist, selling her sob story while helping herself to the family jewels and silver. But what she is now is dead, her mutilated body found on the Dancer estate. It’s clear that one of the Dancers is similarly sitting on some sinister secrets, and Forsythe has been asked to poke around. He’s happy to do the favor, especially if he can stay alive while doing it. And who would kill the village sawbones, nice Dr. Foster, not to mention his pretty wife? To answer that question, Sandy goes undercover, only to discover an embarrassment of suspects: it seems that half the folks in town had reason to loathe the doctor, not to mention his pretty wife. Can Sandy sift through them all? Sure...but she’ll risk her own life to do it.
Weddings can bring out the worst in people. . . . “For those who enjoy civilized mayhem, the charming Freers will be a welcome diversion.” —Kirkus Reviews Against her better judgment, Virginia Freer has agreed to be a witness at an old friend’s second wedding―against her better 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. At least the police are amusing―right out of a third-rate comedy, with their insistence that this was just a robbery gone wrong. True, some silver appears to be missing, but Felix and Virginia have (sadly) seen enough murders to know when a fellow has been deliberately whacked in the head. But nailing down the details and persuading the police will take some time. It seems Virginia is in for rather a larger dose of Felix than she bargained for . . . Praise for the novels of E.X. Ferrars “[An] engrossing whodunit.” —Publishers Weekly “Fans of Agatha Christie will be pleased.” —Denver Post
The murder of a local author has an amateur sleuth and her con artist ex-husband on the case in this mystery by the author of Last Will and Testament. Virginia’s trouble is that whenever something awful happens, it is far too easy to imagine that her ex-husband, Felix—that lying, light-fingered charmer—is behind it somehow. So her suspicions are understandably raised when he unexpectedly shows up on her weekend getaway with the Boscotts, just as her friend’s engagement party is ruined by the murder of a local author. Luckily for Virginia—not to mention the Boscotts—Felix’s talent for lying makes him an expert in sniffing out other people’s deceit. Now they must investigate who would want to kill a kindly writer of historical fiction. But can they truly trust Felix, or will past prove to be prologue yet again?
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 her first husband—a fact that is giving Tony second thoughts. Things don’t get any more comfortable when, at a family dinner, one of the guests is killed with a chunk of the same crystal that had been Jan’s alleged murder weapon. And Jan herself has disappeared. Now it’s up to Professor Basnett to make the truth crystal clear.
The secret double-life of Ruth Ellis and the Establishment cover-up that led to her unjust hanging Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, was convicted fifty years ago for shooting her lover David Blakely. The case became a notorious part of British criminal history and was turned into the film, Dance with a Stranger. The story that has been perpetuated ever since is that of a peroxide tart who killed in a fit of passion. Yet, crucial questions were left unasked in the original trial. Ruth Ellis's sister, Muriel Jakubait, knew her longest of all. She has never given up her search for justice. Now after fifty years she has decided to reveal the hard facts about their shared upbringing, and seek to piece together the full true story of her sister. As she is at pains to point out, the jealous killer tag has never been substantiated. This is a story of power, espionage, lies, loyalty, poverty, sex and betrayal. It suggests a third man may have pulled the trigger for the fatal shots. And that he belonged to a web of espionage into which Ruth Ellis fell long before the shooting. Above all, it indicates that Ruth was being run by Stephen Ward, at least a decade before his name became public in the Profumo Scandal. Muriel's motive is about more than proving her sister Ruth's innocence. It's about reclaiming the right to tell the story of her own family, stripped bare of the many tabloid myths that have accrued over the decades. She shows that Ruth was somebody damaged at a very early age - who strove to make something of herself, only to be caught up in something much bigger and end up paying with her life.
