Crime Fiction for Beginners

Attractive, blonde Detective Inspector Harriet Ware of the Met is assigned to investigate the murder of Larry Barlow, a publisher found strangled in a Whitechapel alleyway. Press reports of the murder alert three authors who are bitterly resentful of Larry's arrogant rejection of their manuscripts. All are connected in some way with the mystery of his death. They are:

Maud Jackson, who is writing romantic Regency fiction about how the aristocratic Lady Cynthia Cavendish-Harcourt foils the matrimonial intrigues of Jocelyne Bracegirdle, a nouveau riche rival.

Hector Treadgold is writing a science fiction epic in which the last survivors from Earth are making their way through space to the planet they mean to colonise, fighting off reptilian robots from the Ozkon empire en route.

Juliet Transom writes about her heroine Lohana's adventures and mystical experiences in former and future lives.

A fourth author, Gregory Scofield, is rewriting a cold war thriller he wrote in the 80s.

As the murder investigation proceeds, Harriet interviews Larry's partners, wife, lawyer, mistress and wife's uncle and tries to guess what crucial information they are hiding. She reviews the autopsy and scene of the crime reports but they provide few clues. Then there is Larry's file of threats and hate letters. Were some of them written by disgruntled would-be authors or by someone else? Meanwhile, her assistant Jim Rose searches for the Chinese restaurant where Larry had dinner shortly before he was murdered.

But, in this world of would-be writers, all is very far from being what it seems …