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Lady Dinnister of Marlby Manor may be elderly, but there's lot of life in her yet...
Her heirs try to convince her to sell her vast estate and give them their inheritance early, to save on taxes of course.
But Lady Dinnister can't bear to give up her home and turns them down flat.
That's when the "accidents" start...
When a barbed bouquet of red roses pierces her palm, she attributes this to poor presentation on the florist's part.
When the front wheel falls off her Rolls-Royce, she believes it to be a mechanical mishap.
But when her hairdryer turned into a lethal weapon, Lady Dinnister finally decides someone is trying to kill her...
Only she wasn't the one who ended up dead.
Was it the buxom cook who moonlighted as a nude model? The dashing chauffeur who was driven by ambition? The spoilt grandchildren?
Detective Ben Spence, assisted by his able partner, Inspector Laurel, thinks it is much more likely to be one of the greedy relatives.
Someone has carried out an ingenious crime.
But if the killer is so clever, why is the wrong victim mouldering in their grave?
Spence at Marlby Manor is a suspenseful murder mystery that casts suspicion on everyone and everything.
'A well-crafted, gripping thriller' - Thomas Waugh
'Entertainment in the traditional style' - Kirkus Reviews
'old-time-whodunit'- Kirkus Reviews
Michael Allen is an award-winning writer who has published about twenty full-length novels, mostly crime fiction and thrillers. These novels have appeared in a variety of hardback and paperback formats in the UK, USA, France, and Denmark. The best known of his books are perhaps the three whodunits featuring Det. Chief Supt. Ben Spence. These are listed in two leading reference books on crime fiction: A Reader's Guide to the Classic British Mystery, by Susan Oleksiw; and Sleuths, Sidekicks and Stooges by Joseph Green and Jim Finch. Reviewers have described Michael Allen as 'a true blue murder master' (Michael Demarest in Time) and 'in the top ten of crime writers' (Ted Willis in The Bookseller).
Michael has also worked in all the other major media. His comedy-thriller Spykiller won the Bouchercon 1990 competition for a stage play with a theme based on crime; the judges included Sir Donald Sinden and Hugh Whitemore. Michael's television adaptation of Conan Doyle's The Speckled Band was filmed in Warsaw, in 1979, by American producer/director Sheldon Reynolds; and Michael's radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC and by other organisations in six countries.
Genre: Mystery
Her heirs try to convince her to sell her vast estate and give them their inheritance early, to save on taxes of course.
But Lady Dinnister can't bear to give up her home and turns them down flat.
That's when the "accidents" start...
When a barbed bouquet of red roses pierces her palm, she attributes this to poor presentation on the florist's part.
When the front wheel falls off her Rolls-Royce, she believes it to be a mechanical mishap.
But when her hairdryer turned into a lethal weapon, Lady Dinnister finally decides someone is trying to kill her...
Only she wasn't the one who ended up dead.
Was it the buxom cook who moonlighted as a nude model? The dashing chauffeur who was driven by ambition? The spoilt grandchildren?
Detective Ben Spence, assisted by his able partner, Inspector Laurel, thinks it is much more likely to be one of the greedy relatives.
Someone has carried out an ingenious crime.
But if the killer is so clever, why is the wrong victim mouldering in their grave?
Spence at Marlby Manor is a suspenseful murder mystery that casts suspicion on everyone and everything.
Praise for Michael Allen
'A well-crafted, gripping thriller' - Thomas Waugh
'Entertainment in the traditional style' - Kirkus Reviews
'old-time-whodunit'- Kirkus Reviews
Michael Allen is an award-winning writer who has published about twenty full-length novels, mostly crime fiction and thrillers. These novels have appeared in a variety of hardback and paperback formats in the UK, USA, France, and Denmark. The best known of his books are perhaps the three whodunits featuring Det. Chief Supt. Ben Spence. These are listed in two leading reference books on crime fiction: A Reader's Guide to the Classic British Mystery, by Susan Oleksiw; and Sleuths, Sidekicks and Stooges by Joseph Green and Jim Finch. Reviewers have described Michael Allen as 'a true blue murder master' (Michael Demarest in Time) and 'in the top ten of crime writers' (Ted Willis in The Bookseller).
Michael has also worked in all the other major media. His comedy-thriller Spykiller won the Bouchercon 1990 competition for a stage play with a theme based on crime; the judges included Sir Donald Sinden and Hugh Whitemore. Michael's television adaptation of Conan Doyle's The Speckled Band was filmed in Warsaw, in 1979, by American producer/director Sheldon Reynolds; and Michael's radio plays have been broadcast by the BBC and by other organisations in six countries.
Genre: Mystery
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