His latest novel is going nowhere, a mid-life crisis is looming and he's burdened by the literary agent he probably deserves: Elsie Thirkettle, a diminutive but determined individual who claims to enjoy neither the company of writers nor literature of any sort. But however bad things look, they can always get worse, as Ethelred discovers when his ex-wife, Geraldine, vanishes close to his Sussex home. When the disappearance becomes a murder enquiry, the police quickly decide that Geraldine ...

The first Crime Writers' Association Daggers Award retrospective, featuring 19 award-winning stories from bestselling authors Ian Rankin, Jeffery Deaver, John Connolly, Denise Mina, John Harvey and many more!NINETEEN CWA DAGGER AWARD-WINNING SHORT STORIES FROM THE BEST OF THE BEST IN CRIME FICTIONMaxim Jakubowski has edited all the great names in crime fiction and stories from his anthologies have won the CWA Dagger six times. Now he has co...

By day, Sable Knight publishes crime books.By night, they're brought to life.Sable Knight, owner and Commissioning Editor at the London publishing house Day & Knight, knows a thing or two about crime fiction. But behind the glossy covers and gripping blurbs lies a darker enterprise. Her 'special editorial services' are far more lucrative than the average publishing deal. Some clients - let's call them authors - need a little help plotting their entirely fic...

For fans of Lindsey Davis and Iain Pears—A lawyer stands accused of murder in this historical mystery series opener set in Cromwell's England.Two-time Edgar nominee L. C. Tyler is best known for his series featuring Ethelred and Elsie— a third-rate novelist and his gloriously vulgar agent, respectively. And so he should be: He's twice won Britain's "Last Laugh" award for the Best Humorous Mystery of the Year.But with A Cruel Necessity, the first in t...

This anthology draws together some of the best new stories of mystery and murder—compiled by the Anthony Award–winning crime fiction editor.This anthology collects the most original stories of murder by some of mystery fiction's most inventive talents from the United States and United Kingdom. With innovative new takes on locked-room mysteries and impossible crimes, these short stories are full of vexing conundrums and reality-defying puzzles. A murder has been comm...

When literary agent Elsie Thirkettle is invited to accompany tall but obscure crime-writer Ethelred Tressider to dinner at Muntham Court, she is looking forward to sneering at his posh friends. What she is not expecting is that, half way through the evening, her host will be found strangled in his locked study. Since there is no way that a murderer could have escaped, the police conclude that Sir Robert Muntham has killed himself. A distraught Lady Muntham, however, asks Ethelred to conduc...

In an effort to rejuvenate his flagging career, crime novelist Ethelred Tressider decides to set his new book in Egypt and embarks on a 'research trip' with his literary agent, Elsie Thirkettle, in tow. No sooner has their cruise on the Nile begun, however, than an attempt is made on Ethelred's life. When the boat's engine explodes and a passenger is found bloodily murdered, suspicion falls on everyone aboard including a third-rate private eye, two individuals who may or may not be underco...

Ethelred Tressider, mid-list crime writer, is surprised when fellow author Henry Holiday unexpectedly turns up on his doorstep. He's even more surprised when Henry confesses that he may have committed murder while drunk on New Year's Eve. Though he has little recollection of the night, Henry fears he may have killed drinking companion and fellow crime writer Crispin Vynall, and asks Ethelred to discreetly make enquiries in order to discover the truth.

The first John Grey historical mysteryThe theatres are padlocked.Christmas has been cancelled.It is 1657 and the unloved English Republic is eight years old. Though Cromwell's joyless grip on power appears immovable, many still look to Charles Stuart's dissolute and threadbare court-in-exile, and some are prepared to risk their lives plotting a restoration.For the officers of the Republic, constant vigilance is needed. So, when the bloody corp...

When obscure crime writer Ethelred Tressider vanishes from his home, his indefatigable agent, Elsie Thirkettle, is soon on his trail. Finding him proves surprisingly easy. Bringing him home is another matter. Having followed Ethelred to a hotel in the French Loire, she finds herself confined there with him after a prominent philatelist is murdered. Elsie is torn between her natural desire to interfere in the police investigation and her urgent need to escape to the local chocolatier.

A Mediaeval Manor house. Family members who barely tolerate each other. An overbearing Matriarch. A collection of authors. Suspicious deaths in the library.it sounds like the plot to one of Ethelred Tressider's novels. Not this time - this time, it's real life and it's fallen to Ethelred and his sceptical agent, Elsie Thirkettle to find out what happened.So, instead of acquiring a new book deal to write Lady Letitia Catchpole's exclusive biography, Ethelred and Elsie are sifting thr...

In this mystery by the author of Crooked Herring, a lawyer in Cromwell's England receives dangerous info that could stop a murder—or get him killed.John Grey is a newly minted lawyer and would-be ladies' man with a bad habit of poking his nose into other people's business and getting tangled up in intrigue. That's unfortunate, because a mis-delivered letter from royalists has left Grey with more information about a murderous plot than it's entirely safe to ...