Poison

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Some murder mysteries the police can't solve alone... When junior lecturer, Edward Wiley, dies an horrifically painful death and police pathology can't establish the cause, Professor Green is desperate to help solve the crime, especially as it happened in her own back garden. Professor Elizabeth Green is a lecturer of plant sciences at the University of Cambridge, specialising in poisonous flora. From time to time Cambridgeshire police, especially Inspector Abley, call on her skills to help deal with cases involving poison. And there are more cold blooded, calculated murders using poison recently in the city! Elizabeth's consultancy role, providing expertise on poisonous substances, never stops where it should, as this pushy sleuth always oversteps the mark with her meddling. In her fifties, Elizabeth Green is quintessentially english. An eccentric professor in her ivory tower, she maintains a sharp wit, yet is flawed by her inability to connect well with people, instead giving off a cold, opinionated and sometimes acerbic air. Though in her own defence, she is very kind to animals and a great gardener. In truth she keeps her friends close, and only lets a few dear people into her world. Focussing on new priorities, we pick up in this first book with Elizabeth having been on a break from solving crimes. Devastated by her husband's death just a year ago, Elizabeth hates to feel invisible or let her life pass her by. Both the bumbling and kind Inspector Abley, and her effete grandson, Godric, who is at the university and living with her at the moment, think she should steer clear of getting involved with the police for a while. But no matter how strong their protests, Elizabeth is determined to be useful again. Following another grisly murder, a tense Inspector Abley realises he can't solve this crime without Elizabeth. With people dropping like flies, Elizabeth's unbridled curiosity embroil this meddling sleuth right in the heart of this mysterious case in this historic city. She isn't shy to call on her intellectual and loyal friend, Emily, who also gets pulled into things whether she likes or not. Elizabeth's main companions are Inspector Abley, an amiable, bumbling man, easy in his own golf-course preserved skin, who is kind and nothing like an Inspector should be. Preferring to spend time at the Gog Magog course trying to lower his handicap, than out investigating a murder, Abley likes Elizabeth dearly, despite her significant flaws. Godric, Elizabeth's grandson, is an extremely handsome and misbehaving undergraduate, preferring her cream cakes and civilised living arrangements with all its small luxuries, to that of a draughty small college room. He is a hedonist and is heading for being sent down by the university for zero effort in the classroom department. We meet him after he's had a fall off a 'push scooter', after larking about with Perry Sidcup. He may be a bit of a bacchanalian, but he loves his nanna dearly. With all its sumptuousness of college high table, chapels, the meandering River Cam, punting, rowing, the leafy spaces of Jesus Green and Midsummer Common, the first book in this series, Poison, covers the landscape of this historic city. Intrigue and suspense occur right in the heart of college life. With Dons involved, both town and gown mingle as murder takes hold of the dark cobbled streets and alleys. Readers of Agatha Christie, Marple and Poirot, who love the classic whodunnit crime murder mystery will be at home in the world of the Cambridge Murder Mysteries. They may also appeal to readers of James Runcie's Sydney Chambers Grantchester Mysteries.**