Shortlisted for the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award at CrimeFest 2014.
London, early 1950s. Marcia Beasley of St John's Wood is discovered dead in her home, naked and covered with a coal scuttle. Detective Sergeant Greenleaf is tasked with solving the crime and bringing meaning to her gruesome death. It is a discomfiting matter, not only for the victim's niece Rosy Gilchrist - eager to distance herself from her aunt's fate and raffish reputation - but to all members of the deceased's social circle. The floral Felix and acidic Cedric, awful Vera, self-enamoured artist Clovis Thistlehyde, the amiably inane Fawcett family - all, it seems, have secrets to hide and grudges to bear. Reluctantly Rosy is drawn into a mesh of intrigue, encountering those she would prefer to avoid and uncovering facts she would rather not know. Dragged from her ordered world, she is thrust into one of mad uncertainty. Who, for example, is the limping midnight visitor? Is the bibulous priest as ingenious as he seems? And will Mrs Burkiss ever yield her keys to the broom cupboard? A host of colourful and comic characters leap from the pages in their hurry to identify the murderer, unravel the mystery of Marcia's life, and discover the importance of all that coal.
'Wittily written, tightly plotted and fun to read ... A sparkling gallery of characters. SIMON BRETT 'A perfect mixture of funny and acerbic, with a cast of colourful characters and a school of well-deployed red herrings, A Little Murder is wholly delightful.' LAURA WILSON, author of STRATTON'S WAR
'This dry, funny British gem, with its eccentric cast of characters, will leave readers laughing and eagerly awaiting the next episode' Publishers Weekly
'Utterly wonderful, sparkling dialogue, bring on the next!' - Mystery Women
Author
About Suzette A. Hill
Suzette Hill was born in East Sussex, and spent much of her childhood playing spies and smugglers on Beachy Head and picnicking at the foot of the Long Man of Wilmington. Hill worked as a teacher in both public school and adult education before retiring in 1999. She now lives in Ledbury, Herefordshire. At the age of sixty-four and on a whim, she took up a pen and began writing. Hill has since published six novels, including the Reverend Oughterard series.
