Andrew Basnett

A retired botanist comes to stay in a charming English village, where murder and blackmail disturb the bucolic peace in this mystery series debut. No longer on the sprightly side of seventy, Professor Andrew Basnett is looking forward to retirement and finally digging into the biography he plans to write about an obscure seventeenth century botanist. While his flat in town is renovated, he settles into a little village in Oxfordshire where he's borrowed his nephew's cottage. It sounds perfectly pleasant, even with the village murderess living right up the road. Basnett's nephew informs him that Pauline Hewison's case never came to trial because she had the perfect alibi. Not entirely comforted, Basnett is more unnerved when a blizzard knocks out the power and provides a dark, snowy night just like the one six years ago when someone shot Charles Hewison through the head. It doesn't help that there's been another murder and that Pauline, once again, has motive to spare.

A weekend holiday at a wealthy relative's country manor is a recipe that calls for mayhem in this charming cozy English mystery. Andrew Basnett's cousin Felicity is old, rich, and the owner of a swanky Berkshire estate. If Basnett were a savvy mystery reader rather than a retired professor of botany, he would know that an invitation to spend Easter weekend at such an estate is all but guaranteed to involve at least one murder. But since Felicity is all about excess, this trip delivers not only a death threat, but also an imminent disinheritance, the theft of a fortune in diamonds, some spectacular intrigue involving the servants, and not one but two corpses. It's a good thing the mild-mannered professor is around to suss out the family secrets!

A retired professor finds that an amateur sleuth's work is never done, even on an Australian holiday in this cozy mystery, Andrew Basnett takes a break from his little English village to spend Christmas in the small Australia city of Adelaide. Visiting Tony, an old colleague with a newish wife, Basnett soon learns that a cloud hangs over the marriage. Jan, Tony's bride, is widely believed to have murdered her first husband-a fact that is giving Tony second thoughts. Things don't get any more comfortable when, at a family dinner, one of the guests is killed with a chunk of the same crystal that had been Jan's alleged murder weapon. And Jan herself has disappeared. Now it's up to Professor Barnett to make the truth crystal clear.

When an old colleague complains of disappearing neighbors, a retired professor of botany starts digging for clues in this delightful cozy mystery. Andrew Basnett may be retired from academia, but that doesn't seem to have stopped his former colleagues from dumping problems in his lap. This time around it's peppery Constance Camm, whose neighbors keep disappearing. Miss Camm and her sister, Mollie, would probably shrug it off if not for a frightening letter that reads "I know where you buried the body." But . . . to which disappeared neighbor does the letter refer? And why was it sent to Mollie, who hasn't buried anything? Spurred by a desire to help a friend, Professor Basnett starts poking around. But his efforts uncover more than one village skeleton, and they may call up more than anyone has bargained for.

Academic conferences can be full of petty squabbles-and sometimes, not-so-petty ones. . . . "There are few detective-story writers so consistently good." -Sunday Times   Professor Andrew Basnett has returned to his old university for a meeting of the Botanical Association, an event that should be entirely benign, aside from the usual inflated egos and bickering. But he can't help being just a little curious about Carl Judd, an artist who was murdered here just two years ago. And, of course, about Stephen Sharland, who's in prison for the murder-even though no one thinks he did it, not even Judd's widow. The rumors are flying, the tongues are wagging, and then the only witness to the crime gets murdered, too! It's all too exciting-no, sorry, too terrible, too terrible for words. Thank heavens Andrew Basnett is on hand to weed out the gossip and dig for the taproot of truth . . .

A retired professor spends Christmas in a not-so-peaceful English village in this wryly witty mystery with "a surprising and satisfying conclusion" (Publishers Weekly).   Andrew Basnett does not have very good luck with Christmas. Most recently, while visiting friends in Australia for the festive season, he wound up with a front-row seat to some rather extraordinary family strife. And this time around, his plans for a peaceful English-village holiday get blown up when. . . . well, when his hosts' neighbor, Sir Lucas Dearden, gets blown up.    This is England in the 1980s; everyone shudders, blames the IRA, and moves on. Except, of course, for Andrew Basnett. Who knew, he wonders, about Sir Lucas's last-minute change of plans? Why had Sir Lucas meticulously removed one page of the (rather stunningly dull) memoir he was writing? And could the bomb possibly have been intended for someone else?   "Ferrars has published more than sixty books and the craftsmanship of this one shows why her popularity endures." -Publishers Weekly   "There are few detective-story writers so consistently good." -Sunday Times

The irresistible Andrew Basnett series may have been written in the 1980s and '90s, but its soul lies with the classic crime fiction of the 1930s. Here, for example, is A Hobby of Murder, with its setting at-wait for it-a classic country-house party, that staple of the Golden Age. Rounding out the guest list are, among others, a mystery writer, a lawyer with a reason to dislike him, a doctor, a retired teacher with a passion for photography, and the lord of the local manor, keen amateur chef Sam Waldron-so keen that he has recreated an 18th-century dinner. His skills may not match his ambition, but he didn't mean to poison the coffee. Oh, no? The local police inspector isn't so sure, but in the finest Golden Age tradition he's rather an idiot, so when the bodies start piling up, it's a good thing that Basnett is on hand to sort things out!

Plans for peaceful seaside holidays rarely work out well in the world of classic British mysteries. Retired professor Andrew Basnett, for example, envisioning sandcastles and the blessings of a pale English sun on his pale English skin, is startled to meet his nephew, Peter, on the beach. He's more startled (and not entirely thrilled) when Peter gets him invited to dinner with a celebrity novelist. And he's extremely startled when the novelist's sister-in-law is shot in the summer house and Peter seems the likeliest suspect. We like to say that Andrew Basnett should be known as "Mr. Marple," because the series' village settings, pinpoint plotting, and canny, creaky sleuth are so pleasingly reminiscent of the tales of St. Mary Mead. But they feature, in addition, a gentle wit that (dare we say it?) Ms. Christie could only dream about, and this final installment is a perfect exemplar.