Murder My Neighbour

July 25, 2011
In Heley's irresistible 12th Ellie Quick cozy (after 2010's Murder by Mistake), a former neighbor of Ellie's in suburban London, Flavia Pryce, appears to have dropped off the map on her way to a retirement home several months earlier. Ellie scarcely knew Flavia, but becomes involved when she's mistaken for her own late aunt, Drusilla, who was close to the elderly woman. Flavia's relatives, who have long relied on her for financial assistance, are frantic to locate her. Ellie is, of course, curiousâparticularly after Rose, "her dear friend and housekeeper," insists she saw a spectral face at the window of Flavia's empty house. Suspicious characters include squatters, a light-fingered nephew, shady businessmen, and a gardener who still has access to the property. Meanwhile, Ellie's demanding daughter, Diana, makes life tough for both Ellie and husband Thomas. If you think you've seen Diana at her worst, just wait.

September 1, 2011
Trouble hits close to home as Ellie Quicke (Murder in the House, 2009, etc.) investigates a disappearance from a house around the corner.

Something's amiss at Flavia Pryce's multi-storied, multi-gabled home. First, Ellie's housekeeper Rose falls off a ladder while tying back some rambler roses the gardener carelessly neglected—all because she sees a disembodied head floating mysteriously in the air above the garden that backs onto Ellie's house. Next, Flavia's great-nephew Terry shows up at Ellie's claiming that his aunt left for a nursing home but never checked in. A visit to Flavia's reveals footprints in the dust and a thriving vegetable garden, recently watered and picked. Ellie also learns more about Flavia's relations, stepchildren Edgar and Edwina, and Edwina's daughter Evangeline, all of whom sponge mercilessly off her. (Although none are as rapacious as Ellie's own daughter Diana, who threatens to disrupt her son's comfortable custody arrangement with his father if Ellie doesn't raid her charitable trust to finance Diana's latest scheme.) The local police are willing to look into the disappearance of Ellie's engagement ring right after Terry's visit, but they're indifferent to Flavia's fate. So it's up to the indomitable Ellie to find out why Flavia sold off her belongings, gave away her cats, set up a room for herself in a nursing home but never arrived.

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September 1, 2011

Ellie (Murder by Mistake) gets involved in a missing-persons case when an elderly neighbor fails to show up at her new retirement home.

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