In this Edgar-nominated cozy series opener, a second-rate British crime novelist and his quirky agent investigate his devious ex-wife's murder. A mediocre mystery-writer (and thus a purveyor of red herrings), Ethelred Tressider has even less interest in writing his books than his (dwindling) fan base has in reading them, and his agent-the pesky, nosy, vulgar, chocolate-chomping Elsie-has no interest in them at all. But with a name like Ethelred,...

From the author of Ten Little Herrings, murder is on the menu when a two-bit British crime writer and his sub-par agent dine at a country estate. Ethelred and Elsie are an unlikely duo: he's a deeply mediocre mystery writer, and she's his deeply nosy, chocolate-chomping agent. And yet they are stuck with one another, if only because their combined sleuthing abilities are much more impressive than anything either one of them can come up with alone....

It's the Autumn of 1666, and the Great Fire is still burning, the ashes of hundreds of houses and shops and St. Paul's Cathedral choking the air. The people, too, are choking, raging at the French, the Dutch, at the foreigners who-they are certain-lit the torch. Lord Arlington, the Secretary of State, might conceivably be interested in harnessing this anger; it can be so useful, at times, to have the population united in loathing of a common enemy....

In this mystery by the author of Crooked Herring, a lawyer in Cromwell's England receives dangerous info that could stop a murder-or get him killed. John Grey is a newly minted lawyer and would-be ladies' man with a bad habit of poking his nose into other people's business and getting tangled up in intrigue. That's unfortunate, because a mis-delivered letter from royalists has left Grey with more information about a murderous plot than it's entirely...

From the author of The Herring in the Library, a struggling mystery author takes an Egyptian cruise for inspiration only to become surrounded by murder. Ethelred Tressider's career is not, let's face it, what one might call glittering. In fact, it's barely what one might call capable of paying the gas bill. To be honest, this is not surprising: Ethelred lost any real interest in writing mystery novels many years ago, and his audience has never been...