Death and the Old Master (St. Just Series #6)

by G. M. Malliet

Overview

Cambridge UniversityMaster Sir Flyte Rascallian has little interest in the innocent-looking set of old paintings he inherits from his aunt Beatrice, until he takes a closer look . . . and ends up dead in this page-turning cozy.

Something is bothering Sir Flyte Rascallian, renowned art expert and Master of Hardwick College at the University of Cambridge. Are the grimy paintings he recently inherited from his aunt as worthless as he claims?

Curator Ambrose Nussknacker believes one of the paintings could be a genuine Rembrandt. Why is Sir Flyte so reluctant to get it authenticated, and so determined to avoid the tributes due to the discovery of one of the world’s great lost treasures?

When Sir Flyte is found murdered in the Master’s Lodge, Detective Chief Inspector Arthur St. Just must unravel his unusual actions to solve the death of the old Master. College fellows, staff, and students all agree something was amiss. But as St. Just investigates, he quickly becomes entangled in a web of deception following the trail of priceless artwork people would kill to possess.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781448317004
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	07/29/2025
Series:	St. Just Series , #6
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.70(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. The Augusta Hawke mysteries, of which Invitation to a Killer is the second, are her first novels set in the U.S., where she and her husband now live.

www.gmmalliet.com

Editorial Reviews

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

Booklist on In Prior's Wood

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

For fans of old-fashioned cozies

Booklist on Death in Cornwall

Malliet’s latest offers readers an unhurried pace, a richly diverse cast of characters, and intriguing glimpses into modern-day police work and the grit behind the glamour in the worlds of academia, writing, and publishing

Booklist on Death in Print

A twisty plot, vivid personalities, and some gentle British humor make this an enjoyable read, particularly for dedicated Anglophile mystery lovers

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 Alma Mater

Excellent art mysteries are always rich in atmosphere and complex in plot, and Death and the Old Master does not disappoint

firstCLUE

Fans of Dorothy Sayers' novels and other Golden Age British mysteries will enjoy this contemporary salute

Library Journal on 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

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

Kirkus Reviews on Death in Cornwall

Lots of humor and a bit of 'guess who this writer is' make this one a good choice for readers who enjoy intelligent cozies and traditional mysteries

Library Journal on Death and the Lit Chick

Malliet draws the reader in with elegant prose and distinctive characters

Publishers Weekly on Death in Cornwall

2024-09-28
A violent death rocks the fictitious Hardwick College, surely the last outpost in Cambridge University to be visited by homicide.

Going to investigate an untoward shriek, night porter Oliver Staunton finds Sir Flyte Rascallian, the master of the college, stabbed in the back. Given the inveterate envy characteristic of so many academics, it’s possible that the motive for his killing was the eagerness that Prof. Patricia Beadle-Batsford, of the Department of Women’s Studies, has expressed to succeed him in his August position. It seems more likely, though, that he was really killed because of another old master: Rembrandt, who may just have painted the portrait of a young woman that was among the canvases and papers Sir Flyte was given by Beatrice Rascallian, his uncle’s widow, shortly before she died. DCI Arthur St. Just, returning for another investigation, is clearly in no hurry to close the case, and the unruffled pace of his investigation gives the killer time to claim another victim, narrowing the little pool of suspects even further. Was the master killed by Beadle-Batsford; by her teenage daughter, Peyton; by the American graduate student Rufus Penn, whom Peyton insists is her boyfriend; by gallery owner Ambrose Nussknacker, who’d shown a keen interest in having the suspect Rembrandt tested to establish authenticity; or by one of the other Hardwick porters? The question is upstaged by the fact that the mysterious painting has disappeared. Malliet works conscientiously to distribute suspicion among the survivors, but none of them is half as interesting as that portrait.

Lots of potential conflicts, but they’re as soft-pedaled as the background music at a funeral parlor.

Kirkus Reviews