Murder on the Tor: An Exham on Sea Cosy Mystery (Exham on Sea Cosy Crime Mysteries Book 3)
Page 12
“Marina made sure I knew all about her fictitious affair with Chesterton Wendlebury,” Libby admitted, lying on Max’s sofa, Bear at her feet. “She knew I’d tell you about it. Like everyone else, I hardly gave Henry a thought.”
“They made a perfect criminal couple,” Max agreed. “Marina at the centre of the community, watching and manipulating while Henry, almost unnoticed, directed operations through his old client, Wendlebury. I don’t believe Wendlebury ever understood what was going on. Underneath the country gentleman act, there’s precious little intelligence. Marina was at the centre of a complicated web. It will be a long time before they come to trial.”
“Will you be involved?”
“I’ll be giving evidence, with the greatest of pleasure.”
A shiver travelled up Libby’s spine. “We still don’t know whether Trevor’s death was an accident, or murder. He was cremated, so we’ll probably never be sure, unless Marina or Henry tells us. I’m afraid they’re not likely to do that.”
Max drew her head on to his shoulder. “Can you live with that? Not knowing?”
“I shall have to. At least, there are good things to look forward to. My son’s coming home, bringing his girlfriend, and I’m almost sure there’s a wedding on the horizon. I’ll be busy, making the biggest, grandest cake Exham’s ever seen.”
Max fetched a bottle of champagne and popped it open. Libby said, “We ought to drink a toast: to cake, chocolates and our partnership, Ramshore and Forest, Private Investigators.”
Max’s raised glass sparkled with condensation. “I’ll drink to that, with just one proviso. Let’s toast our real future. Here’s to you and me: Libby and Max.”
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The Exham on Sea Mysteries
Love cozy crime? Feed your little grey cells on The Exham on Sea Mysteries, a series of short murder mysteries set in a small seaside town in Somerset.
Download Murder at the Lighthouse
In the first story, Murder at the Lighthouse, Libby Forest arrives on the coast after years in a disastrous marriage, determined to build a new life making cakes and chocolates in Exham on Sea, where she discovers her talent for solving mysteries. Aided and abetted by Bear, an enormous Carpathian Sheepdog, Fuzzy, an aloof marmalade cat and handsome, secretive Max Ramshore, she puts together the pieces of the jigsaw to find the culprit.
Download Murder on the Levels
In Murder on the Levels, two cyclists are poisoned out on the remote Somerset Levels. The Exham on Sea bakery is blamed, and Libby must discover the killer to save the bakery and her own career.
The Exham on Sea Mysteries include a cast of local characters, including Mandy the teenage Goth, Frank the baker and Detective Sergeant Joe Ramshore, Max's estranged son. The green fields, rolling hills and sandy beaches of the West Country provide the perfect setting for crime, intrigue and mystery.
For lovers of Agatha Christie novels, Midsomer Murders, lovable pets and cake, the series offers a continuing supply of quick crime stories, each one short enough to read in one sitting, as Libby solves a mixture of intriguing mysteries and uncovers the secrets of the small town's past.
The Thatcham Hall Mysteries
Secrets, lies, murders and mysteries abound at Thatcham Hall, a fictional grand country house set in the green, rolling hills of 19th century Victorian England, where the Thatcham Hall Mysteries take place.
Download An Independent Woman
In An Independent Woman, Philomena, a determined orphan from the slums of Victorian London, tumbles from one disastrous plan to another, haunted by terrifying dreams of a man with cold green eyes.
Impatient with the social conventions she encounters in the great English country house, Thatcham Hall, she meets and crosses swords with the handsome, widowed Lord Thatcham, complicating life still further by falling for a man with secrets of his own.
Download Danger at Thatcham Hall
In Danger at Thatcham Hall, ambitious lawyer Nelson Roberts, embittered by war and jilted by his fiancée, trusts no one. He jumps at the chance to make a name for himself by solving the mysterious thefts and violence at Thatcham Hall, a country house in Victorian England.
Olivia Martin, headstrong and talented, dreams of a career as a musician and will do anything it takes to avoid a looming miserable fate as a governess.
The pair stumble on a body. Is the farm-hand’s death a simple accident, or something more sinister? Who attacked the livestock at the Hall and why are the villagers so reluctant to talk? Can Nelson and Olivia overcome their differences and join forces to unravel the web of evil that imperils the Hall?
About the author
I love making up murders and mysteries. My two series are the Exham on Sea Mysteries, a contemporary crime series set in a small Somerset seaside town, and the Thatcham Hall Mysteries, 19th Century historical mystery romances set in Victorian England.
Living in Somerset, I walk on the beach and in the countryside, collect grandsons, Victorian ancestors and historical trivia, smell the roses, lavender and rosemary, and cook with a glass of wine in one hand and a bunch of chillies in the other. I’ve visited the Arctic Circle and the equator and plan to see the penguins at the South Pole one day, when I’ve knitted enough woolly underwear.
I’ve been a speech therapist and a road sweeper, and worked in the criminal courts, seeing the world from both the dock and the witness box alongside vulnerable witnesses.
Start your library of Victorian crime stories by downloading my FREE true crime book, Murder Most Victorian. It won’t cost a farthing.
Download Murder Most Victorian
The Exham on Sea Mysteries:
Contemporary Cosy Crime Fiction
Murder at the Lighthouse
Murder on the Levels
The Thatcham Hall Mysteries:
Victorian Fiction
An Independent Woman
Danger at Thatcham Hall
Free Kindle Ebook: True Crime
Murder Most Victorian
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The characters and events described in the Exham on Sea Mysteries are all entirely fictitious. Some landmarks may strike fellow residents of Somerset, and particularly of Burnham on Sea, as familiar, although liberties have been taken with a few locations.
Copyright ©Frances Evesham 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles or reviews.