The Book Lady

DISCOVER A DYNAMIC DETECTIVE DUO SOLVING CRIMES IN THE TOWNS AND VILLAGES OF ESSEX. YOUR NEXT FAVOURITE BRITISH DETECTIVE SERIES.

PRAISE FOR MALCOLM FORSYTHE:

‘Forsythe carves out retribution with a scalpel.’

The Sunday Times

‘An excellent crime jigsaw.’

Bolton Evening News

‘A feast for readers with a taste for epic theatrics, innuendo, and bodies buried in the garage.’

Kirkus

‘Deft and skillful running of two mysteries in tandem.’

Yorkshire Post

‘An engrossing pace, a difficult mystery, and a cast of full-bodied characters.’

Booklist

EVEN THE MOST RESPECTABLE PEOPLE HAVE SECRETS. SOMETIMES THOSE SECRETS GET THEM KILLED.

Janet West and Laura Stebbing run a mobile library, touring the villages of north-east Essex on a schedule as precise as a railway timetable. Janet brings books to the lonely and housebound, and reads to them, too.Then Janet’s body is found by a fisherman on the bank of the River Colne. Her blonde hair is blood-soaked and she’s missing a shoe.Chief Inspector Millson naturally wonders why anyone would murder such a respectable and well-liked woman.But he and Detective Sergeant Scobie soon discover that there was more to Janet’s life than the library.

A lot more.

THE SETTING

From picturesque villages to posh yacht clubs, from bustling seaside towns to unspoiled riverside homes, Essex is full of surprises, beauty, and the occasional murder.

THE DETECTIVES

In his late thirties,

Detective Chief Inspector George Millson

is unhappily divorced with a daughter he doesn’t see enough, especially after his ex–wife remarried and moved to Birmingham. Not the neatest of men, he’s a damn-good detective.Red-headed

Detective Sergeant Norris Scobie

is twenty-eight and smartly turned out. He joined George Millson a year ago on transfer from the Met. ‘Don’t ever call me guv’nor!’ Millson had bellowed on their first day together. ‘Schools and prisons have governors.’

MILLSON AND SCOBIE BOOKS

1. WITHOUT A TRACE2. A COUSIN REMOVED3. THE BOOK LADY4. A FATAL REUNION5. DEATH OF A SECRETARY6. ONLY LIVING WITNESS7. LAST KNOWN ADDRESS