Death of a Dean

With matronly wit, Mrs. Malory is out to prove an actor friend never played the part of murderer in this "delectable treat for cozy lovers, British style" (Kirkus Reviews).

When in Stratford, Sheila Malory always stays with her old friend, David Beaumont. But lately, David's acting career is failing, along with his finances. Unless he can convince his penny-pinching brother Francis to sell their family home in the seaside village of Taviscombe, he'll be out on the street.

Francis, Dean of the Culminster Cathedral, does not believe that charity begins at home. He refuses to put the house on the market or give David a loan. Besides, their ancient and addled nanny was told that she could stay in the home until she dies. Then, suddenly, she does. But even then, Francis refuses to sell the property.

When Francis himself dies from poison-laced tea, the police conclude that both deaths were murder—with David as suspect number one. And Mrs. Malory is the only one who can keep her friend from finding a new home in prison.
"Applying her characteristic deft touch in rendering contemporary English village life, Holt shows no signs of altering the formula that has made this series the very model of the modern mystery cozy."—Publishers Weekly

"Ah, what a joy to read Hazel Holt." —The Sunday Times (London)