Leonora by Hazel Holt
It is twenty years since Leonora Staveley retired from her illustrious career as an investigative journalist to live as a virtual recluse on Exmoor, surrounded only by her beloved animals. With an increasing lack of concern for her own welfare and her house filled to the brim with the clutter and relics of an extraordinary life, no-one was too surprised when the elderly Leonora suffered a fatal bout of food poisoning. But Sheila Malory suspects something far more sinister was involved in the death of her friend. For there are a number of people, including Leonora's brother Vernon and her neighbours the Bamfilde brothers, who had good reason to want this wealthy lady out of the way once and for all. And aside from the obvious suspects, just who was the mysterious young man seen camping near Leonora's house just days before she died...?
Investigative journalist Leonora Staveley retired to Exmoor twenty years agoFrom an illustrious career travelling the world she has now become reclusive, preferring life alone with her animals in her cottage on the moors. Worried Sheila Mallory, an old friend, decides to check on her and discovers her ill, cold and living in circumstances that most people would describe as destitute, despite her wealth. Rushed to hospital, Leonora survives only a few days before dying of suspected e-coli, caught from her natural stream - her only water supply. Sheila soon discovers that some people are relieved at Leonora's death and this sets her mind to thoughts of murder. Was it Leonora's brother who wanted her cottage back in order to develop a leisure centre? Was it her neighbours, the Bamfilde brothers, who wanted a share of her stream? Or was it the strange young man seen camping nearby, shortly before her death? Hazel Holt gives Sheila Mallory full rein and looses her inquiring mind to try and solve the murder - if that is what it is. Easy to read, vaguely reminiscent of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, it is an enjoyable gentle crime book set against the beautiful backdrop of Exmoor. - Lucy Watson
Hazel Holt has many devoted fans in the United States and Great Britain as a writer of "cosy" British mysteries; she has published nineteen Mrs. Malory novels at last count. She is also known to admirers of Barbara Pym as the friend and biographer who additionally edited Pym's posthumous works. Ms. Holt originated from Birmingham, England, where she attended King Edward VI High School for Girls. She studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, and went on to work at the International African Institute in London, where she became acquainted with the novelist Barbara Pym, whose biography she later wrote. Holt wrote her first novel in her sixties and is a leading crime novelist. She is best known for her "Sheila Malory" series. Her son is the novelist Tom Holt.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780333907726 |
| ISBN 10 | 0333907728 |
| Title | Leonora |
| Author | Hazel Holt |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Pan Macmillan |
| Year published | 2002-03-08 |
| Number of pages | 240 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |