A widow at sixty-four, the matriarch of a vanished England. When Arthur Scorer died of cancer in April 1951, his widow Clare was sixty-four — and just getting started. Over the next twenty-eight years she would bury a son, help to fight a prolonged court case claiming compensation for his widow and children, support her younger daughter in her difficult marriage and instigate her move into a half-derelict Elizabethan farmhouse in Devon with 200 acres needing to be farmed. ...

Following a personal tragedy, florist Persimmon "Simmy" Brown has moved to the beautiful Lake District region to be closer to her charismatic parents. Things are going well, and Simmy is happy to lose herself in her work. But the peace she has found is shattered when, at the wedding of a millionaire's daughter, the bride's brother is found brutally murdered in the lake.As the wedding florist and one of the last people to talk to Mark Baxter alive, Simmy gradually becomes involved w...

A wartime life, told in her own words. In November 1939, with the war just two months old, Wendy Scorer married Hugh Farthing — a handsome young RAF pilot more than six years her junior — in a hasty white wedding at her parents’ house in Bowdon. Two years later, Hugh would be shot down by the Japanese somewhere over Singapore, missing presumed dead, leaving Wendy a widow at twenty-eight.Drawing on Wendy’s gloriously frank diaries and a vast cache of family letters ...

"Rich in psychological insight . . . Tope is particularly skilled in creating interesting and unique characters." — Deadly PleasuresA huge funeral for Windermere's popular resident, Barbara Dodge, is taking place and florist Persimmon "Simmy" Brown and her new assistant, Bonnie Lawson are busy compiling wreaths in preparation. As people pass through the shop they begin to hear rumors about a series of sinister dog-nappings occurring in nearby Troutbeck. Up...

"Rich in psychological insight . . . Tope is particularly skilled in creating interesting and unique characters." – Deadly PleasuresValentine's Day is fast approaching and business at Persimmon "Simmy" Brown's flower shop is booming. But when Simmy fulfills a string of anonymous delivery orders, she is startled to realize that each contains a secretly menacing message for the recipients. When one of the people who receives a bouquet disappears, it seems th...

Simmy Brown is four months pregnant, working partly from home, partly from her Windermere florist shop and very much feeling her age when her husband, Christopher, asks her to deliver flowers to Eleanor Padgett. As anexpert in antique textiles, Eleanor has been a considerable help to him at his auction house.The visit out to the charming Lake District village of Dacre is squeezed into Simmy's endless to-do list. It is a moment of calm to appreciate the approach of spring and...

'As Rebecca Tope tells it, every rural idyll is blighted by underlying menace. Such is her writing skill, I'm inclined to believe her' Daily MailWith the approach of autumn, a heavily pregnant Simmy Brown is anticipating the imminent arrival of her new child and juggling the move of her florist business to Keswick. A bouquet order to be delivered to the beautiful but remote Eskdale is an awkward addition to Simmy's to-do list. There she encounters three ge...

The story of a legendary saint from the Dark Ages, as told by his mother. The young Cuthman is instructed by God to take his crippled mother with him on a pilgrimage across southern England. He fashions a wooden cart for her, and together they spend some months on the rough and bumpy roads, meeting many adventures along the way. Cuthman is kept prisoner by a community of rapacious women, at one point. Further on, they are joined by a young boy, Hal, who later becomes of great importance to...

As Christmas draws nearer, Simmy Henderson is invited to a party in Glenridding at the heart of the Lake District. However, the festivities are overshadowed by two alarming discoveries: a man's body in the beck above the village and a vulnerable newborn baby, apparently abandoned by its mother.Caught in the crosscurrents and tensions of the inhabitants of Glenridding, Simmy is drawn into the investigation. The season of goodwill has been eclipsed by far darker emotions and a murder...

A classic British cozy crime mystery set in the idyllic Cotswold countryside ...Thea Osborne reconnects with her friend Emmy while on a visit to the church in Baunton, near Cirencester with her stepdaughter Stephanie. Emmy, now married to local farmer Nick Weaver, asks Thea to, help them find their missing niece, Ginny.But before Thea can get started, she stumbles upon the recently killed body of Alice, a woman they had briefly seen in Cirencester the day b...

From the author of the bestselling Cotswold Mystery series ...As the auction at High Gates House in Borrowdale nears, Christopher Henderson bumps into Jennifer Reade, the expected recipient of the proceeds of the house clearance sale. She discovers a dead man in the cellar of the house but threatens Christopher into remaining silent about it until after the auction to avoid delays.The auction is halted by the police with the news that a murder has been comm...

Thea Osborne and her loyal spaniel Hepzie are still pursuing their occupation as house-sitters, despite the disastrous incidents of the past. At the moment they are staying in the late Greta Simmonds' house, which is currently between ownership. But when a body is discovered in a nearby field, Thea finds herself embroiled in a murder investigation once again. After befriending undertaker Drew Slocombe, she soon finds she's aligned herself with the police's only suspect. Believing him to be...