L.C. Tyler

Ethelred Tressider, mid-list crime writer, is surprised when fellow author Henry Holiday unexpectedly turns up on his doorstep. He's even more surprised when Henry confesses that he may have committed murder while drunk on New Year's Eve. Though he has little recollection of the night, Henry fears he may have killed drinking companion and fellow crime writer Crispin Vynall, and asks Ethelred to discreetly make enquiries in order to discover the truth. As Ethelred and his trusty agent Elsie begin to investigate, they discover that Henry has been set up, and now all that remains is for them to find out why and, more importantly ...whodunnit?

Crooked Herring

Duke's Company actress Kitty Burgess has a stunning future before her - until she vanishes after the opening performance of Aminta Grey's new play, The Summer Birdcage. One of her fellow actors swears he saw her being bundled into a black coach driven by six black horses outside the theatre. Then no more is heard of her - until the body of a young woman is found dead beside the road in Hertfordshire. It appears to be Kitty, so Aminta and her husband Sir John Grey, travel to Bishop's Stortford to identify her. The girl has been so badly beaten it is impossible to tell who she is, but there are three clues - the dress she is wearing, a ring and a copy of the script of Aminta's play, left (perhaps a little too conveniently) in the victim's hands. Back in London Aminta catches sight of a young woman who looks exactly like Kitty but before she can do anything, the woman runs off and is lost in the crowd. Meanwhile, rumours abound at court that Kitty was about to become the king's new mistress and all fingers are being pointed at Lady Castlemaine for having arranged for her rival to be spirited away and killed. And now John Grey finds that is no longer just his wife who is determined to prove Kitty Burgess is alive. It would seem her disappearance - and possible reappearance - is part of some much wider conspiracy, and that Kitty may be about to play the most dangerous, and possibly deadly, role of her life. A role from which there may be no escape ... Praise for L.C. Tyler 'Len Tyler writes with great charm and wit . . . made me laugh out loud' Susanna Gregory 'I was seduced from John Grey's first scene' Ann Cleeves 'Tyler juggles his characters, story, wit and clever one liners with perfect balance' The Times 'A dizzying whirl of plot and counterplot' Guardian 'Unusually accomplished' Helen Dunmore 'A cracking pace, lively dialogue, wickedly witty one-liners salted with sophistication . . . Why would we not want more of John Grey?' The Bookbag

The Summer Birdcage

'Witty and amazing, L. C. Tyler has a wicked sense of humour' M. C. Beaton 1665, and the Great Plague has London in its grip. Where better, then, to hide a murdered man than among the corpses on their way to the Plague pit? When a supposed Plague victim is found with a knife in his back, John Grey, now a successful lawyer, is called in to investigate. The dead man was known to be carrying a compromising letter from the Duke of York to the French ambassador. Now the letter has vanished and Secretary of State Lord Arlington wants it. But Arlington is not the only one trying to recover the letter. Somebody has killed once trying to obtain it - and is prepared to kill again. Grey must set off on a journey through Plague-ravaged England to fulfil his commission and keep himself safe from his enemies - if the Plague doesn't get him first... Praise for L.C. Tyler 'Tyler juggles his characters, story wit and clever one liners with perfect balance' The Times 'A historical thriller, but one written with tongue firmly in cheek . . . Tyler is a witty writer, and this third outing for Grey is great fun' - Sunday Times 'An exciting, well-plotted and brilliantly witty historical mystery' For Winter Nights

The Plague Road

L'Égypte, ses pyramides, ses bateaux de croisière remontant le Nil... C'est dans ce décor d'anthologie que l'auteur de romans policiers Ethelred Tressider décide de placer l’action de son nouveau livre. Son agent, la sarcastique Elsie, l'accompagne pour un « voyage d'études ». Ils embarquent sur le Khédive avec une dizaine de personnages, tous plus excentriques et louches les uns que les autres. Et pour leur malheur, la croisière tourne vite au vrai roman policier. A peine arrivés à bord, un passager est retrouvé mort sur le pont. Qui a décidé de rejouer (pour de vrai) le scénario de Mort sur le Nil ? L'homme en short rose qui se fait passer pour un détective ? Deux faux policiers égyptiens mais vrais terroristes ? Ou l'auteur lui-même ? La réalité dépasse vite la fiction... Une enquête d'Elthered et Elsie, le duo le plus british du polar !

Mort étrange sur un bateau remontant le Nil

An original short story taken from the anthology Motives for Murder, by members of The Detection Club Award-winning author L.C. Tyler brings us a humorous tale of domestic intrigue and murder. When Margaret poisons her husband after a small argument, she annoyingly fails to convince the law she is innocent and has to endure a trial. But the jury are on her side - aren't they?

The Trials of Margaret

‘Crime in the classic mould with a sharp comic edge’ Daily Mail Roger Norton Vane is dead. After twenty years of wild speculation following his disappearance, his death is to be made official and somebody will inherit his accumulated wealth. Ethelred Tressider, crime writer and Vane’s biographer, attends the memorial service, but he doesn’t expect to find himself talking to Vane himself, apparently returned from the dead. Chaos ensues and it becomes clear that many people wish the man calling himself Vane had stayed dead, and that his anecdotes had died with him . . . With dubious help from his redoubtable literary agent Elsie Thirkettle, Ethelred is drawn into an increasingly bloody mystery where all that’s clear is that someone has done a serious hatchet job on Vane.

Herring in the Smoke

‘Very much set in “Golden Age” territory ... a great deal of fun' The Guardian Dr Hilary Joyner is neither well liked nor well respected among his academic peers. However, he believes his next project will bring him the recognition he deserves. He is working to uncover the truth behind the ‘buried treasure story’, a local Sussex legend involving an invaluable golden statue, fabled to be hidden among the religious houses in the county. Although his latest book deadline is looming, Ethelred Tressider unwittingly finds himself hosting both the academic and his own redoubtable literary agent, Elsie Thirkettle, for the weekend. The three soon find themselves part of a hunt for the missing figure, but it isn’t long before Joyner’s research comes to an abrupt end with his death. Ethelred and Elsie must piece together the clues of the past to solve the mystery in the present – if they can avoid the distractions of chocolate and feminine wiles for long enough, that is.

The Maltese Herring

The fifth John Grey historical mystery 1668. John Grey is now a Justice of the Peace and lives in the manor house he has inherited on his mother's death with his new wife, Aminta. As the village is cut off from the rest of the world by a heavy snowfall, George Barwell is discovered dead in the woods. Grey is called to examine the horribly disfigured body amidst the rumours that the attack has been the work of the Devil as the victim had been cursed by reputed witch Alice Mardike just days before his violent death. As Barwell's father-in-law leads the villagers into kidnapping Alice and throwing her into the millpond to see if she floats as a witch or drowns as an innocent woman, Grey agrees to investigate the murder: his main suspect is the very man leading the witch hunt. But if Grey can't solve the mystery of George Barwell's death within a week, Mardike will be tried for witchcraft - and the sentence has already been decided . . . Praise for L.C. Tyler 'Tyler juggles his characters, story wit and clever one liners with perfect balance' The Times 'A cracking pace, lively dialogue, wickedly witty one-liners salted with sophistication . . . Why would we not want more of John Grey?' The Bookbag 'A dizzying whirl of plot and counterplot' Guardian 'I was seduced from John Grey's first scene' Ann Cleeves 'Unusually accomplished' Helen Dunmore

The Bleak Midwinter

The first John Grey historical mystery The theatres are padlocked. Christmas has been cancelled. It is 1657 and the unloved English Republic is eight years old. Though Cromwell's joyless grip on power appears immovable, many still look to Charles Stuart's dissolute and threadbare court-in-exile, and some are prepared to risk their lives plotting a restoration. For the officers of the Republic, constant vigilance is needed. So, when the bloody corpse of a Royalist spy is discovered on the dung heap of a small Essex village, why is the local magistrate so reluctant to investigate? John Grey, a young lawyer with no clients, finds himself alone in believing that the murdered man deserves justice. Grey is drawn into a vortex of plot and counter-plot and into the all-encompassing web of intrigue spun by Cromwell's own spy-master, John Thurloe. So when nothing is what is seems, can Grey trust anyone? 'Tyler juggles his characters, story wit and clever one liners with perfect balance' - The Times 'A cracking pace, lively dialogue, wickedly witty one-liners salted with sophistication . . . Why would we not want more of John Grey?' - The Bookbag

A Cruel Necessity

Eastwold, 1670, and local legend tells how on a still night, if you stand on the beach there, you can still hear the bells of the drowned church of St James tolling mournfully beneath the waves... Eastwold, once one of the greatest ports in England, has been fighting a losing battle with the sea ever since it was granted its charter by King John. Bit by bit the waves have eaten the soft cliffs on which it stands, until only a handful of houses remain. But still it sends two MPs to Parliament and rich men from London are prepared to pay well for the votes of the dozen or so remaining burgesses of the town. The voters are looking forward to a profitable by-election, only for the Admiralty's candidate, the unpopular Admiral Digges, to end up in a fishing net, every bit as drowned as his prospective constituency. Is it an accident, as the coroner has ruled, or has Digges been murdered, as the Admiralty fears? John Grey, Justice of the Peace and former spy, receives a request from the authorities to uncover the truth. Hot on the heels of Grey is Samuel Pepys, sent by his master the Duke of York to stand for the watery seat in place of Digges. He also brings Grey clarification of what kinds of truth the Duke is happy for him to uncover and what he should ignore. With spring edging cautiously towards the windswept east coast, Grey starts to question the remaining residents and other well-paid officials of the non-existent town. He meets with suspicion from the voters and polite obstruction from Pepys. Will Grey uncover the murderer before the last of the town vanishes beneath the waves? As one of inhabitants warns him: 'This is a troubled place, Sir John. It is a dead town. Can you not feel that? Have you not seen the bones that litter the beach? It is a dead town that cries to be buried and forgotten.' Praise for L.C. Tyler 'Len Tyler writes with great charm and wit . . . made me laugh out loud' Susanna Gregory 'I was seduced from John Grey's first scene' Ann Cleeves 'Tyler juggles his characters, story, wit and clever one liners with perfect balance' The Times 'A dizzying whirl of plot and counterplot' Guardian 'Unusually accomplished' Helen Dunmore 'A cracking pace, lively dialogue, wickedly witty one-liners salted with sophistication . . . Why would we not want more of John Grey?' The Bookbag

Too Much of Water

The fourth John Grey historical mystery 1666. London has been destroyed by fire and its citizens are looking for somebody, preferable foreign, to blame. Only the royal Court, with its strong Catholic sympathies, is trying to dampen down the post-conflaguration hysteria. Then, inconveniently, a Frenchman admits to having started it together with an accomplice, whom he says he has subsequently killed. John Grey is tasked by Secretary of State, Lord Arlington, with proving conclusively that the self-confessed fire-raiser is lying. Though Grey agrees with Arlington that the Frenchman must be mad, he is increasingly perplexed at how much he knows. And a body has been discovered that appears in every way to match the description of the dead accomplice. Grey's investigations take him and his companion, Lady Pole, into the dangerous and still smoking ruins of the old City. And somebody out there - somebody at the very centre of power in England - would prefer it if they didn't live long enough to conclude their work... Praise for L.C. Tyler 'Tyler juggles his characters, story wit and clever one liners with perfect balance' The Times 'A cracking pace, lively dialogue, wickedly witty one-liners salted with sophistication . . . Why would we not want more of John Grey?' The Bookbag 'A dizzying whirl of plot and counterplot' Guardian 'I was seduced from John Grey's first scene' Ann Cleeves 'Unusually accomplished' Helen Dunmore 'Literate, witty, and huge fun' Irish Independent

Fire

‘Ethelred and Elsie are a dazzling detective duo ... witty and hugely entertaining’ Martin Edwards, author of Mortmain Hall Ethelred Tressider and his agent Elsie Thirkettle have been invited to lecture on a creative writing course at Fell Hall, a remote location in the heart of ragged countryside that even sheep are keen to shun. While Ethelred’s success as a writer is distinctly average, Elsie sees this as an opportunity to scout for new, hopefully more lucrative, talent. But heavy snow falls overnight, trapping those early arrivals inside, and tensions are quick to emerge between the assembled group. When one of their number goes missing, Ethelred leads a search party and makes a gruesome discovery. With no phone signal and no hope of summoning the police, can Ethelred and Elsie identify the killer among them before one of them is next?

L.C. Tyler

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