I’m a huge fan of the classic mystery stories of the Golden Age, by writers such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Ngaio Marsh’ It’s harder for an amateur sleuth to operate in the present day, when the police have such advanced forensic techniques, but it’s still possible to devise plots where the main focus is on the well-tried combination of means, motive and opportunity. I love setting clues in plain sight with the hope that my readers will overlook them entirely, and revealing what I hope will be a totally unexpected solution.
28th June, 2024
‘There’s something fishy going on at St Cadoc’s Abbey’
The sudden death of Iris Grant’s great uncle Petroc gives an ominous new meaning to his warning about strange events on the isolated Cornish island of Morgarrow. Amateur sleuth Gawaine St Clair will need all his detecting skill to find the answers, especially when Iris herself is murdered soon afterwards.
There are plenty of suspects to choose between. Bernard White, the chair of the abbey trustees, wants to build a timeshare resort on the island, aided by his accomplice Roddy Chatham. Local landowner George Pengelly needs the money from selling his land in this deal. And then there is Iris’s ex Jake Fletcher who is enraged at being dumped and believes he will inherit her property on the island, while the real heir is Annis Radford, Iris’s next-door neighbour. But when a further murder takes place, it seems that none of these could be the suspect.
Gawaine is convinced if only he could work out why Iris was mysteriously wandering around the abbey grounds at midnight, he will be able to find the solution to the crime and reveal the killer.
The setting is also lovely – a fictitious Cornish island, with landscape and weather brought vividly to life.
Amazon Review
A return to traditional storytelling values which fans of good Crime Fiction will undoubtedly embrace and admire.
Amazon Review
11th October, 2018
When Thomas Coates, Vicar of St Paul’s, Ellingwood, disappears from his vestry minutes before the Sunday morning service, subsequently to be found dead on the North Downs, reluctant amateur detective Gawaine St Clair is called in to investigate.
Gawaine and his companions assemble a list of suspects: Frank Reed, whose wife Ruth was refused Communion by Fr Thomas because she has been divorced; John Bretton who had clashed with Fr Thomas over his chaplaincy of the local prep school; Stella Bretton and Andrew Danby who have been breaking their marital vows together; Henry Hartley, Church Treasurer, who appears to have more money than he should have; Richard Coates, Fr Thomas’s brother, who inherits shares that give him control of the family business.
Further complications arise when it is discovered that the local doctor’s receptionist is hopelessly infatuated with the doctor. Could her suicide be connected to Fr Thomas’s murder? What is the significance of Fr Thomas’s missing pectoral cross? And who else had a role to play in the crime?
Loved this wonderfully crafted book…
Amazon Review
Cherith Baldry is a stunningly good crime writer.
Amazon Review
I didn’t want to put it down once I started reading it.
Amazon Review
The charm of this book, despite the sinister happenings, is the way the author describes all the various suspects.
Amazon review
28th March, 2018
When a female skeleton is unearthed by workmen digging the foundations for a library extension at St Clement's College, Gawaine St Clair, a reluctant amateur detective and former undergraduate of the college, is called in to investigate. Arriving in Oxford, Gawaine is informed that the body had been buried for 30 years, and the woman had been pregnant at the time of her death. Gawaine also discovers that a don, Richard Templeman, is missing, to be later found dead.
Gawaine's suspicions fall on men who were in college 30 years before, and are still there: Stephen Verner, who was then about to marry a socially advantageous woman; Father Gerard, the celibate college chaplain; Heatherington the creepy head porter; Colonel Morrison, the Bursar, who appears to have no motive; Dr Porteus, whose Fellowship depended on his unmarried status.
A letter gives Gawaine clues to the identity of the woman and her lover, and he finally finds the killer. But is he right? And will he survive long enough to prove it?
This is a very enjoyable who-dunnit.
Amazon Review
An intriguing mystery with all the clues set out in plain sight, as they should be, and all good fun.
Amazon Review
The story is well-written, witty and fast-paced.
Amazon review
