E. X Ferrars

In this classic cozy mystery, a retired botany professor visits an English country manor house where a dinner party turns into a hunt for a killer.

The irresistible Andrew Basnett series may have been written in the 1980s and ‘90s, but its soul lies with the classic crime fiction of the 1930s. Here, for example, is A Hobby of Murder, with its setting at—wait for it—a classic country-house party, that

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"A weekend holiday at a wealthy relative's country manor is a recipe that calls for mayhem in this charming cozy English mystery. Andrew Basnett's cousin Felicity is old, rich, and the owner of a swanky Berkshire estate. If Basnett were a savvy mystery reader rather than a retired professor of botany, he would know that an invitation to spend Easter weekend at such an estate is all but guaranteed to involve at least one murder. But since Felicity...

Plans for peaceful seaside holidays rarely work out well in the world of classic British mysteries. Retired professor Andrew Basnett, for example, envisioning sandcastles and the blessings of a pale English sun on his pale English skin, is startled to meet his nephew, Peter, on the beach. He's more startled (and not entirely thrilled) when Peter gets him invited to dinner with a celebrity novelist. And he's extremely startled when the novelist's sister-in-law...

When an old colleague complains of disappearing neighbors, a retired professor of botany starts digging for clues in this delightful cozy mystery. Andrew Basnett may be retired from academia, but that doesn't seem to have stopped his former colleagues from dumping problems in his lap. This time around it's peppery Constance Camm, whose neighbors keep disappearing. Miss Camm and her sister, Mollie, would probably shrug it off if not for a frightening...

The murder of a local author has an amateur sleuth and her con artist ex-husband on the case in this mystery by the author of Last Will and Testament. Virginia's trouble is that whenever something awful happens, it is far too easy to imagine that her ex-husband, Felix-that lying, light-fingered charmer-is behind it somehow. So her suspicions are understandably raised when he unexpectedly shows up on her weekend getaway with the Boscotts, just as...

Against her better judgment, Virginia Freer has agreed to be a witness at an old friend's second wedding-against her judgment because the other witness is Felix, her sort-of-ex-husband. On the other hand, she does rather enjoy Felix…in small doses. Thank heavens for that, because little else about the wedding is enjoyable, from the oddly unwelcoming hostess to the vicious murder of the groom's father, shortly after the spectacularly dull reception....