'So what tips do you need of a criminal nature?''Oh, nothing complicated. Just the basic rules for committing the perfect murder will do to be going on with.'The Rotunda in Dearehaven has a reputation as one of the most distinguished theatres in the country. Its success is due to its owner, Elfrieda Henshaw, a strong-willed woman whose character and methods have moulded a professional and happy company.Tessa Crichton joins the cast of the new play, only to find the company has been upset by Elfrieda's protégée. Melanie, a young woman with a wayward past who has bewitched the old lady.As rehearsals get under way, Melanie disappears and everyone except Elfrieda is convinced she has absconded with the theatre's cash. Elfrieda is found dead, in puzzling circumstances which sharpen Tessa's acute antennae for the mysterious. It is then discovered that the famous Rotunda is nearly bankrupt - and the small residue of the once great fortune is bequeathed to...

I had detected no sound or movement, but her eyes were open and, as I approached, she fixed them on me with an agonised stare.Tessa Crichton, actress wife of Scotland Yard Inspector Robin Price, comes to Storhampton to star in the local drama festival . . . and finds her most challenging role in a masquerade ending in murder. It begins when the insufferable Edna Mortimer sees her exact double at the races-and is literally scared stiff.Somebody has played a nasty practical joke on the wealthy dowager. But one look at Mrs. Mortimer's terrified eyes and some indecipherable pencil squiggles tell Tessa this is no laughing matter. Could the grim prankster be one of Edna's greedy heirs? When the will is finally read, it only raises more questions. Someone is not getting their just deserts. But can Tessa find out who before the deadly double strikes again?Scared to Death was originally published in 1977. This new edition features an introduction and afterword by...

With no sound at all, she pitched forward head first into the punch bowl, scattering canapés and glasses in all directions.By all accounts, Mike Parsons is a paragon: considerate, loyal and devoted to his awkward wife - rumoured to be an alcoholic. But now he has done a vanishing act. Was he killed - and who would murder such a kind individual anyway?Rising young actress Tessa Crichton is unwittingly set a real puzzle in investigating the case of a man she knew and liked - but who turns out to be a more mysterious character than previously thought. Needing all her detective skill to find out what has really happened to the saintly husband, Tessa uncovers evidence that increasingly puts herself in danger.Killing with Kindness was originally published in 1974. This new edition features an introduction and afterword by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.'Anne Morice has a gift for creating intelligent, affection-generating characters, set in light and...

"I should warn you that it is not a pretty story.""Stories about murder rarely are."Nobody knows who started the rumour that James McGrath murdered his wife Rosamund. Certainly no one had seen her in a while, and she had gone off to visit a sick cousin without mentioning a trip to the neighbours. Still, everyone was inclined to accept the story - that is, until one of the neighbours meets the cousin in town, in excellent health and eager for news of country cousin Rosamund. Tessa Crichton, a guest in the Oxfordshire locale, is fascinated by this series of events. Fascination soon turns to a neat bit of detection when someone comes to her with a very strange confession.Dipping into the case with relish, Tessa soon suspects there's murder mixed up in the mystery. But until she comes up with a body - or two - no killer can get just deserts.Murder Post-Dated was originally published in 1983. This new edition features an introduction and afterword by...

'Poor woman, how she must wish she had never come!'Prophetic words, if ever I heard any.The actress Tessa Crichton's cousin Ellen is engaged - but to someone she has known only a fortnight. The man appears rich, presentable and mad about Ellen, but Tessa is worried about the reaction of his former amoureuse, and indeed about that of Ellen's own ex-boyfriend, a bibulous and self-pitying actor.Plans go ahead for a splendid white wedding, and the scene is set for a gathering of various eccentric and tiresome relations - foremost in tiresomeness the bride's mother.Just before the speeches one of the guests collapses and dies; and a host of clues, suspects and possible motives appear. The elegant Tessa investigates with her usual mixture of observation and intuition, helped by her Scotland Yard detective husband Robin. Another murder is in the offing before we reach the surprising yet plausible conclusion to an entertaining matrimonial whodunnit.Death of...

'Not complaining, are you? Right up your street, I should have thought. Solving the odd murder between professional engagements is your forte.'When the rare chance occurs for Tessa Crichton and her policeman husband, Robin, to have a three week holiday together it is with some misgivings that Tessa agrees to spend the time at a luxury hotel in the West Country.Her misgivings are confirmed when she realises that Robin's insistence in going to Mattingly Grange is due to an unsolved murder which had taken place in nearby Chissingfield two years previously, when a young woman had been killed near the racecourse.The link between their hotel and the death naturally gives full rein to Tessa's natural inquisitiveness. There is also the added enigma of a birthday party at the hotel involving characters who were connected with the dead woman.Getting Away with Murder? was originally published in 1984. This new edition features an introduction and afterword by...

'You'll be the death of me one of these days. I'm telling you.''I'll be the death of myself first,' I replied.The soignée young actress Tessa Crichton is in dazzling form when Robin, her husband and Scotland Yard detective, suggests sleuthing in the Sussex village of Burleigh. The area has recently seen a number of art thefts, but the stakes are raised considerably when murder most foul occurs at a local party . . .Tessa of course cannot resist a mystery. Her investigations run parallel with her husband's, and although she is soon on the right track, there will be bizarre and dangerous consequences.Strange and brilliant characters, odd birds of paradise, are among the suspects in this cleverly-plotted whodunit. Here are character, action, humour - and a very high likelihood of being deceived (despite fair clues) about the identity of the murderer.Death of a Gay Dog was originally published in 1971. This new edition features an introduction and...

'Ever heard of the Alibi Club?,' Robin asked when he was driving me home after one of the most disastrous first nights in theatrical history.When Tessa's Scotland Yard husband Robin is invited to speak at the renowned and respectable Alibi Club, she is excited to be surrounded by the members - all mystery writers of the first rank - although one is missing.Crime novelist and playwright William Montgomerie has died, leaving behind a widow and a lost manuscript. His former spouse, Gwen, suddenly blossoms into literary fame after years of struggling in the shadows. The splendidly eccentric Myrtle Sprygge, whose clairvoyant powers and old relationship with Montgomerie further complicate the situation, and lead Tessa to wonder whether Gwen is taking credit for something she didn't write. When Gwen is found murdered, everyone wonders what - and who - could have triggered such revenge.Dead on Cue was originally published in 1985. This new edition features an...

'Going somewhere nice for lunch?' he enquired.'No,' I said. 'As a matter of fact, I'm going straight back to the country. Something tells me there isn't a minute to lose.'The scene of the crime is a large Victorian Rectory. An aged and famous opera singer dies; she has been ill for some time and initially her death would appear to be natural. But her will, signed on the day she died, causes both astonishment and considerable ill-feeling among her kin. Then two more sinister deaths occur at the Rectory . . .Tessa Crichton, soignée actress and inadvertent sleuth, is an old friend of the family. Under the circumstances she can't resist investigating, while her detective husband, Robin Price of Scotland Yard, works on another case near by. Tessa's imagination and powers of deduction are brilliant as ever. By twists and turns she reaches the solution, but not without a measure of danger to herself - and just a little help from the local police.Death and...

When she turned round I saw that she had a carving knife in her hand.Why has Pelham Hargrave returned to his childhood home after twenty-five successful years in Canada and the United States, and is his beautiful and neurotic young American wife quite what she claims to be? Why has a celebrated Hollywood director chosen to retire to a remote English country house, and why does one young woman covet the house and another loathe it? Above all, what is the secret of old Nannie's power, which allows her to dominate the household from her rocking chair?These are some of the questions which confront the soignée Tessa Crichton, actress wife of Scotland Yard detective Robin Price, when she arrives to spend a quiet weekend with her godmother in Herefordshire. One by one the puzzles are unravelled, thanks to Tessa's spirited and irrepressible curiosity, plus a little help from her husband, but not before two people have died and Tessa herself has narrowly escaped the same...

Dangerous secrets score high at an exclusive girl's school . . . but top marks belong to murder.Actress Tessa Crichton has mixed reactions to being on the panel of judges at the annual inter-house competition of the Waterside Drama and Ballet School, her alma mater. When she arrives on campus, the headmistress is having an affair with the founder's husband, a kleptomaniac is on the loose among the budding thespians, and the beloved and bewildering foundress is suffering from a most mysterious illness. When a student with a penchant for drawing compromising caricatures is found dead, the picture is one of murder most academic.Is it illicit love among the staff? Stealing among the students? Espionage among the alums? Or a scheme so beastly that Tessa's search for a killer becomes an education in the elusive evil one might find behind the most friendly facade.Murder in Outline was originally published in 1979. This new edition features an introduction and...

Some fast thinking would be required, if I were not to get my head chopped off on the coming Friday.When Mrs Trelawney, a much-married Australian of considerable fortune, bought the big house at Sowerley, the locals hoped her money would help enrich the locality and the community. Instead they found themselves in a cold war.When Tessa Crichton arrives in the neighbourhood to stay with some old friends, there is a tense atmosphere as the established inhabitants mount guard over the oak tree threatened by the Trelawney axe. But almost before Tessa can catch up on the local news - eviction of tenants, dogs caught in gin traps, fortress fences round the big house - a murder occurs which makes all that has gone before pale into insignificance.Hollow Vengeance was originally published in 1982. This new edition features an introduction and afterword by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.'The fun lies in the style, light and sweet as a soufflé.' Daily...

'What if he'd done it in reverse? Supposing the murder had already been committed by the time you saw him?'The elegant actress Tessa Crichton is starring in a film to be made in Paris. Her husband Robin (otherwise Detective Inspector Price of Scotland Yard) and her cousin Ellen travel with her but the trip is off to a peculiar start when Tessa's jewel case disappears - and mysteriously turns up again; no jewellery missing. She and Robin go racing at Longchamps, attend an evening of Indian folk music, and get invited to lunch by a chance acquaintance. Their social activities seem perfectly innocent and enjoyable - before murder is committed and Tessa finds herself in possession of some very dangerous knowledge.Anne Morice's talents for characterisation and humour are well displayed in a classical whodunnit with elements of espionage and kidnapping.Murder on French Leave was originally published in 1972. This new edition features an introduction and afterword...

He was confronted by the sight of his wife sagging full length on the sofa, where she had been since approximately half past six, when she was strangled to death with one of her own silk scarves.Death isn't in the script of the comedy slated to open in London's West End. But bloody bad luck during rehearsals has convinced actress Tessa Crichton that the first night of Elders and Betters will be its last. Even a charming plot can't help the doddering old star, Sir Philip Mickleton, who is dying in every scene . . . or the indecisive director, who's killing the timing; the producer, who's fatally fouling up the financing; and the leading lady and her lover, who are battling it out in the dressing room. But the finishing touch comes with anonymous letters predicting murder. Fear suddenly takes centre stage as Tessa switches roles from ingénue to detective. A theatre goes dark . . . and somebody dies.Sleep of Death was originally published in 1982. This new edition...

She lay on her back, her head and shoulders at an unnaturally curved angle, as though she had arched herself in a last tremendous convulsion as death overtook her. The grass around her was stained with blood and a dart was sticking out above the neckline of her dress.This is a sparkling whodunit in the best Anne Morice style: the action takes place in and around an ostentatious stately home where murder strikes at the garden fête.The gala is being thrown by a millionaire tycoon in aid of the local conservation society. Noted actress Tessa Crichton has been given the job of declaring the event 'open'. While not expecting open season on murder, Tessa is unable to resist the chance to do some on-the-spot investigation, especially as the police are building a damaging case against someone she considers to be innocent.There are plenty of suspects and plenty of motives; nobody shows much inclination to tell the whole truth and Tessa's involvement becomes more...