Death in Cornwall

by G. M. Malliet

Overview

DCI Arthur St. Just and Portia De’Ath visit the quiet village of Maidsfell in Cornwall only to find it divided over plans to redevelop the seafront. After a heated meeting on the topic, Lord Bodwally, who is fiercely against the plans, is found murdered. St. Just finds himself compelled to investigate, but what secrets are hidden in Maidsfell?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727850386
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	01/04/2022
Series:	St. Just mystery , #4
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.91(w) x 8.98(h) x (d)

About the Author

Agatha Award-winning G.M. Malliet is the acclaimed author of two traditional mystery series and a standalone novel set in England. The first entry in the DCI St. Just series, Death of a Cozy Writer, won the Agatha Award for Best First Novel and was nominated for Macavity and Anthony Awards. The Rev. Max Tudor series has been nominated for many awards as have several of her short stories appearing in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine and The Strand. Although now residing in the US, she lived many years in England, which inspires most of her stories.

Editorial Reviews

11/15/2021

Malliet’s gripping fourth St. Just mystery (after 2010’s Death at the Alma Mater) takes Det. Chief Insp. Arthur St. Just of the Cambridge Constabulary and Portia De’Ath, his criminologist fiancée, to the Cornish village of Maidsfell, where they’re soon dragged into an ongoing argument over seafront redevelopment. The townsfolk are angrily split between fishermen proposing a practical new slipway and supporters of the tourism industry wanting to preserve the view that’s the backbone of Maidsfell’s economy. When St. Just and Portia find Lord Titus Bodwally, a prominent resident with the means to make both sides happy, stabbed to death in his library, what was supposed to be a restful break for the couple turns into a busman’s holiday. Their efforts to assist the local authorities lead to an important clue—that someone initially tried to kill Bodwally by feeding him a fish whose poison can be deadly. Malliet draws the reader in with elegant prose and distinctive characters. Fans will hope they won’t have to wait another 12 years for the next installment. Agent: Mark Gottleib, Trident Media. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly

2021-10-13
Taking time away from his duties as a Cambridgeshire DCI, Arthur St. Just travels with his all-but-fiancee Portia De’Ath to the picturesque village of Maidsfell for a quiet vacation. Guess what happens next.

Sad to say, Maidsfell has been ripe for murder for a long time. Celebrity chef Jake Trotter and Michelin star–winner Morwenna Wells are fierce rivals. Fisherman Will Ivey and estate agent Cynthia Beck, agitators who support the Save Our Shore initiative, are bitterly opposed by townsfolk convinced that new development is their only salvation from the plague of Covid-19. The Rev. Judith Abernathy, the curate presiding over St. Cuthbert’s while vicar Peder Wolfe dries out in rehab, is recently widowed, and Morwenna and Wiccan practitioner Sybil Gosling are both mourning daughters, Sybil’s killed by a drunk driver, Morwenna’s by a leap from the Fourteen Maidens, the cliffside standing stones that had been the village’s sole claim to fame. Suddenly, however, the murder of Lord Titus Bodwally, the life peer of Revellick House who’s a not-so-silent partner in Jake’s restaurant, beckons unwelcome new media attention. DCI Tomas Mousse, of the Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, urges St. Just, who hasn’t had a published case since Death at the Alma Mater(2010), to step in. Partnered by Portia, a Cambridge don in criminology with a sideline writing detective novels, St. Just begins questioning the suspects just as the murderer strikes again. The news that Bodwally ate a poisonous fish before he was stabbed to death scuttles any hopes that Portia’s latest title, No Crime Like the Present, will be prophetic.

Low-key, highly professional work right up to the unmasking of the surprisingly well-hidden killer.

Kirkus Reviews

'Low-key, highly professional work right up to the unmasking of the surprisingly well-hidden killer'  –Kirkus Reviews

'Malliet draws the reader in with elegant prose and distinctive characters'  –Publishers Weekly

'For fans of old-fashioned cozies'  –Booklist

'Longtime cozy fans will be reminded of golden age classics starring Dorothy Sayers’ Harriet Vane and Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen. Malliet’s writing is both smooth and elegant and her humor delicious. The reader who hasn't yet discovered Malliet’s St. Just mystery series has a real treat in store'  –Booklist Starred Review of Death at the Ama Mater

'Fans of Dorothy Sayers’ novels and other Golden Age British mysteries will enjoy this contemporary salute'  –Library Journal on Death at the Alma Mater

From the Publisher

Top notch ... readers will find a tasty tale that doesn't disappoint. Perfect for fans of the wickedly funny cozy writers M.C. Beaton and Catriona McPherson

Fans of the early Martha Grimes novels as well as the work of Robert Barnard and C.S. Challinor will also find much to like here. A real find for old-school mystery fans

Booklist Starred Review of Death and the Lit Chick

Longtime cozy fans will be reminded of golden age classics starring Dorothy Sayers' Harriet Vane and Edmund Crispin's Gervase Fen. Malliet's writing is both smooth and elegant and her humor delicious. The reader who hasn't yet discovered Malliet's St. Just mystery series has a real treat in store

Booklist Starred Review of Death at the Alma Mater

[Malliet] may be the best mystery author writing in English at the moment (along with Tana French). She's certainly the most entertaining

Cleveland.com on A Demon Summer