Sheila Malory is being kept busy by her relations, particularly her god-daughter and granddaughter who have gone horse-mad at the local stables. Run by glamorous couple Jo and Charlie Hamilton, she a former leading lady and he a once Olympic standard equestrian, the stables seems to be a fine business - but is all as it seems?
Sheila Malory is less than thrilled when her loathsome cousin Bernard comes to Taviscombe looking for information to complete his family tree. After all, she's got better things to do than listen to Bernard's pompous genealogical lectures and watch him berate his mousy wife. But when Bernard dies suddenly in his rented cottage, it's more than family obligation that keeps Mrs. Malory on the case. Someone wanted Bernard out of the way, and with all the dirt he was digging up on the family, the killer could be more than kin...and less than kind.
Mrs. Malory is given the unenviable task of sorting through her dear departed friend Leonora's voluminous estate. Death by polluted water seems an unfitting end for a former investigative journalist whose life was the stuff of novels. But as questions about the will arise and strangers come out of the past, Mrs. Malory begins to doubt that the cause of the pollution-or Leonora's death-were due to natural causes.
After the sudden death of a teacher at a prestigious English prep school for girls, Mrs. Malory gets shanghaied into being a substitute teacher. It's not long, however, before Mrs. Malory realizes there is something strange about the teacher's untimely death--and something even stranger about the eerily obedient students.
When the unsavory Mr. Masefield is murdered, locals and the law blame Sheila Malory's future daughter-in-law. Now Sheila must untangle the truth before the real killer strikes again.
Sheila Malory's childhood friend has hit hard times, and is desperate enough to try selling the family mansion out from under his stubborn elderly nanny. Unfortunately, the estate can't be sold unless the old woman moves or expires. When she suddenly turns up dead and his much-hated brother is poisoned, Sheila's long-time companion becomes the primary suspect. But she soon finds that things aren't as simple as they look, and even those she trusts may have something to hide.
The sixth book in the popular series, starring charming, fifty-something Mrs. Sheila Malory, a widow with a talent for sleuthing. Mrs. Malory's attempts to help an elderly woman who is being evicted from her home lead her to the discovery that things in the peaceful village of Taviscombe are not as complacent as they seem.
Ever the proper British matron, Hazel Holt's delightful sleuth, Mrs. Sheila Malory, shops at Marks and Spencer, makes a smashing nursery pudding, and solves murders with equal aplomb. London solicitor Graham Percy has always been a trial, but Mrs. Malory's kindhearted late husband simply couldn't turn his back on his old Oxford acquaintance. Now Mrs. Malory has inherited the persnickety bachelor - along with his boring stories, chronic complaints, and interminable four-day-yearly visits to her home in the scenic seaside town of Taviscombe. But this year is different. Graham Percy's stay is cut abruptly short...when someone stabs him most fatally.
Sheila Malory enjoys her visits to the West Lodge Nursing Home, where resident Mrs. Jankiewicz offers lively company and interesting gossip about their friends. Since the latest news has the wealthy widow Edith Rossiter's scheming daughter, Thelma, pressuring her to sign over a substantial inheritance against her wishes, Sheila suspects the worst when Mrs. Rossiter disappears after a shopping trip. A search of her room reveals that her sleeping pills are missing, and reports circulate of a mysterious man and woman seen speaking to Mrs. Rossiter. But investigations of possible suicide or kidnapping reach a dead end, and only when Sheila's son, Michael, makes a chance discovery while researching in a library does the mystery unravel, revealing a truth more surprising than Sheila could ever have imagined.
Sheila Malory finds herself once again in idyllic Oxford doing research at the Bodleian Library--and once again thrust into an investigation, when an unfortunate accident kills a particularly loathsome woman who was probably also a blackmailer. "A civilized and tantalizing mystery".--Publishers Weekly. Martin's.
Everyone knows that impertinent Lee Montgomery is marrying Charles Richardson for his money. After Lee vanishes, Charles' friends breathe a sigh of relief. But Charles loves his pretty fiancee and is determined to get her back. In this quest he enlists the talents of Mrs. Sheila Malory, whose pastimes include reading nineteenth-century novels and ferreting out the truth. Mrs. Malory, a reluctant amateur detective, is soon convinced that Lee has been the victim of foul play. The residents of the sleepy seaside village of Taviscombe, England, are about to discover just how difficult it is to keep their terrible secrets with Mrs. Malory on the case.
