An Anagram for Murder

A stranger enters the regatta. His name, read the right way round, is a confession. And somebody in the village has already solved it.

Dr Constance Larwood has agreed to crew for Rafe Thurlow in the two-handed race, and to set a crossword for the regatta programme. She has not agreed to the anonymous card in her letterbox: a single cryptic clue in black capitals, which she solves in a morning and wishes she hadn't.

Then Corwin Shale comes up the staithe at the wheel of a hired cruiser. He is rich, charming, Canadian, and determined to buy the staithe, the boatyard and anything else with a view of the water. He has entered the single-handed race. He says he learned to sail on this river, a long time ago.

On the last night of the regatta he is found dead aboard his hired cruiser, and the whole village calls it a terrible accident.

But Constance has seen his name written down, and she has done what any setter would do with eleven letters. So, she is beginning to suspect, has somebody else.

With a boatyard in trouble, a detective sergeant who solves her prize puzzle every weekend, a quizmaster who corrects everyone in print, and a tortoise who walks away from people he does not like (very slowly), Constance must read a village's words more carefully than ever.

An Anagram for Murder is the second Wrayham Staithe Mystery: a warm, witty, fairly clued British cosy with a word-loving sleuth, a slow-burn romance, a very old tortoise and absolutely no gore.

A traditional cosy mystery: no gore, no on-page violence, no explicit content.