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Goldsboro Books

The Murder of Busy Lizzie

The Murder of Busy Lizzie

by Gladys Mitchell

Publisher Michael Joseph

Genre:

Released:

  • Unsigned
  • UK First Edition
  • First Printing
  • Hardcover

£100.00
£100.00
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  • Professionally Packed

    All of our books that have a dust wrapper are covered in clear protective, removable film and are packed professionally in bubble wrap and a box for shipping so that they reach you in perfect condition.

  • Book Condition & Notes

    Fine first edition, in near-fine unclipped dust jacket with several very light surface marks.

About the book

Marius Lovelaine has decided to extend the olive-branch and visit his estranged sister at her island-set hotel. He rallies his family together, but wife Clothilde wants nothing to do with sister or island, and opts to visit her cousin instead. Reluctantly, Marius travels to the island of Great Skua with only his grown children in tow: son Sebastian and daughter Margaret are determined to make the most of their holiday. Eliza Lovelaine (now Dashleigh) has invited them to her hotel, though rather dubiously mentioning the guest fees as she did so. Marius and family disembark from the boat, having arrived with a reptilian older lady and her Amazon-sized companion, only to be told that sister Lizzie has not returned from a trip to the mainland. Frustrated, Marius waits for her arrival, but the days pass and the tiny boat never brings the missing woman to the island.

Marius does make the acquaintance of Eliza's business partner, a dour woman named Miss Crimp, who promptly annoys her guest by situating Marius at the hotel while booking his offspring into a separate chalet. An infestation of ornithologists to the island proves the last straw, but before the Lovelaines can make an exit, a birdwatcher spots the body of a woman being tossed against the rocks by a turbulent sea. Identification shows that the unfortunate woman is Eliza Dashliegh. Marius, who had hoped to reconcile with his sister partly to bolster any potential inheritance she might leave, becomes a suspect in the suspicious death, as does the money-minded Miss Crimp and Lizzie's illegitimate son, an island farmer named Ransome Lovelaine.

Sebastian and Margaret find that the family headstones in the churchyard have been defaced in a curious manner, and unsettling actions and signs point to the presence of witchcraft on Great Skua. Dame Beatrice keeps an eye on events, but she and Laura have come to the island on their own mission. Dead pigs, locked lighthouses, midnight rituals and pirates' caves provide enough intrigue for the elderly detective to postpone the writing of her memoirs and investigate the mysteries provided by this wind-swept, rocky Atlantic island.

About the Author

Gladys Mitchell

For many years, Gladys MItchell taught History and English, swimming and games. She retired from this work in 1950, but became so bored withour the constant stimulus and irritation of teaching that she accepted a post at a school in Staines, where she taught English and History, wrote the annual school play, and coached hurdling.


Her first crime novel featuring Mrs. Bradley was published in 1929, when Gladys Mitchell was 28. Gladys went on to be published until 1983 when she died. She wrote 65 Mrs. Bradley novels, a number of children’s books and several books under the pseudonyms Malcolm Torrie and Stephen Hookaby.


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