E. X. Ferrars - Free Library Land Online - Outdoors & Nature

A Murder Too Many

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 11:30:20 +0200

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...

Root of All Evil

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 15:01:12 +0200

If Andrew Basnett were a savvy mystery reader rather than a retired professor of botany, he would know that an invitation to spend Easter weekend at the Berkshire estate of a wealthy distant relative always involves at least one murder. This one delivers a death threat, an imminent disinheritance, a theft, and two corpses—good thing the quiet professor is around to suss out the family's secrets.

Last Will and Testament

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 21:56:25 +0200

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.

Death of a Minor Character

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 11:30:17 +0200

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...

The Other Devil's Name

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 15:01:09 +0200

Andrew Basnett may be retired from academia, but that doesn't seem to have stopped his former colleagues from dumping problems in his lap. This time around it's the peppery Constance Camm, whose neighbors keep disappearing. Miss Camm and her sister, Mollie, might be tempted to shrug things off, were it not for a frightening letter. "I know where you buried the body," says the letter, but...to which disappeared neighbor does the letter refer? And why was it sent to Mollie, who hasn't been burying anything? Spurred by a desire to help a friend (and—admit it!—by his own curiosity), Professor Basnett starts poking around. But his efforts uncover more than one village skeleton, and they may call up more than anyone has bargained for.

Thinner Than Water

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 11:30:16 +0200

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...

Something Wicked

Thu, 06 Feb 2020 14:50:34 +0200

No longer on the sprightly side of 70, Professor Andrew Basnett is looking forward to retirement, to really digging into the biography he plans to write of an obscure 17th-century botanist, to settling into the little village where he's borrowed a cottage while his flat in town is being renovated. It all sounds peaceful and bucolic, even if the village murderess lives right up the road. But the case never came to trial, says Basnett's nephew, lender of the cottage: She had the perfect alibi.

Not entirely comforted, Basnett is yet more unnerved when a blizzard hits, knocking out the power and igniting powerful memories, throughout the village, of that similarly snowy night six years ago when Mrs. Hewison....well, when someone shot Charles Hewison through the head. It doesn't really help that there's now been another murder and that Pauline Hewison, once again, had motive to spare.

The Decayed Gentlewoman

Wed, 14 Sep 1977 11:01:13 +0300

Another detective novel from the author of "Alive and Dead", "A Foot on the Grave" and "Murder Among Friends".

Frog in the Throat

Wed, 24 Mar 2021 21:56:24 +0200

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?

Smoke Without Fire

Sun, 09 Jan 2022 11:30:19 +0200

A retired professor spends Christmas in a not-so-peaceful English village in this wryly witty mystery with “a surprising and satisfying conclusion” (Publishers Weekly).

Andrew Basnett does not have very good luck with Christmas. Most recently, while visiting friends in Australia for the festive season, he wound up with a front-row seat to some rather extraordinary family strife. And this time around, his plans for a peaceful English-village holiday get blown up when. . . . well, when his hosts’ neighbor, Sir Lucas Dearden, gets blown up.

This is England in the 1980s; everyone shudders, blames the IRA, and moves on. Except, of course, for Andrew Basnett. Who knew, he wonders, about Sir Lucas’s last-minute change of plans? Why had Sir Lucas meticulously removed one page of the (rather stunningly dull) memoir he was writing? And could the bomb possibly have been intended for someone...

The Crime and the Crystal

Sat, 06 Feb 2021 15:01:11 +0200

In this, his third adventure, Professor Andrew Basnett takes a brief break from his usual stomping grounds in the Little English Village, opting to spend Christmas in a Small Australian City instead. He's visiting Tony, an old colleague with a newish wife, and he's barely had a post-flight snack before he's made aware of a cloud hanging over the marriage. Jan, Tony's bride, is widely believed to have bashed her first husband over the head, and though she was acquitted of the murder, Tony himself is starting to have uncomfortable second thoughts. Things don't get any more comfortable when, at a family dinner, one of the guests is done in, killed with a chunk of the same crystal that put paid to Jan's first husband. And Jan herself? She's disappeared. Only the Professor, it would seem, can banish the clouds of distrust and reveal the truth, clear as crystal.

Seeing is Believing

Tue, 15 Nov 1994 13:23:38 +0200

Hobby of Murder

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 13:23:37 +0200

When seven friends gather to welcome retired professor Andrew Basnett to their village in the English country-side, conviviality soon turns to crime as guests suddenly start dying--and Basnett finds himself seeking a clever killer who's sure to strike again.

The Casebook of Jonas P. Jonas and Other Mysteries

Fri, 15 Nov 2013 14:05:50 +0200