'A gifted and knowledgeable writer . . . engaging and readable' Financial Times Crime novelist Melissa Craig flees London, her agent and her over-protective lover to take refuge in the Cotswolds and produce bestsellers in peace. But a series of bizarre phone calls leads her to a young journalist convinced a real crime has been committed. When a corpse is discovered under the leaf-mould in woodlands, professional curiosity gets the better of judgement. And in the course of her investigations, Melissa finds that the truth is stranger than her own fiction.

Setting up shop in the peaceful Cotswolds, mystery writer Melissa Craig plans her next novel and finds a real-life mystery when a woman's corpse is discovered in a nearby wood. Reprint. PW.

Melissa Craig, the crime-novelist heroine of three previous novels, is back in her native Cotswolds, on the trail of a world-wide art fraud. By the author of A Little Gentle Sleuthing, Finishing Touch and Over the Edge.

Meet Melissa: cat lover, caring mother... daring detective? Melissa Craig is absolutely delighted with her new life in an old crumbling cottage, spending her days pruning the primroses and getting to know Binkie, the ginger cat next door. She only wishes she had made the move to the countryside sooner. But when a knock at the door brings news of a shocking discovery, she suddenly finds herself thrown in to the middle of a baffling mystery: the bones of a young woman have been found in the woods just behind her new home. Perhaps the little village of Upper Bembury is not as idyllic as it first seemed? Strange phone calls in the night convince Melissa that the police are barking up completely the wrong tree, so she can't resist doing a little digging of her own. From the bingo hall to the beauty salon and beyond, her search ruffles a few feathers and uncovers many of the village's most scandalous secrets, but gets her no closer to finding the culprit... The discovery of a tatty old photograph in a drawer is the final piece of the puzzle she needs, but as a newcomer in this close-knit community, does Melissa have what it takes to get to the bottom of this extraordinary murder mystery alone? A joy to read! An absolutely unputdownable whodunnit for fans of Agatha Christie, P.D. James and Faith Martin. This book was previously published as A Little Gentle Sleuthing.

When an artist mutilates his prize-winning painting at the awards ceremony, Melissa Craig--crime writer, teacher, and sleuth--investigates despite warnings that a real murder could be in the offing. By the author of A Little Gentle Sleuthing.

A gifted and knowledgeable writer . . . engaging and readable' Financial Times Melissa Craig has taken time away from writing bestselling mysteries to script a murder play for an amateur drama group. 'Murder with a giggle' is how she thinks of it. But no one is laughing when a cast member dies in the cellar of the old Cotswold Heyshill Manor Hotel where the play is to be produced. Persuaded by the manager to investigate, Melissa finds . . . nothing. No well-ordered clues, no sure suspects, just lots of tension. Then she chances upon a vital discovery in the hotel's parking lot, and everything begins to fall into place. This isn't a matter of "murderous plots and murky deeds, all in rhyming couplets" but a death-defying journey along a trail of crime on an international scale.