A Colourful Death

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Carola Dunn

Eleanor Trewynn is a recently retired widow who has moved to the small village of Port Mabyn in Cornwall. Neither frail nor retiring, after a lifetime of traveling the world, she’s ready for an uneventful life with her dog and friends in this quiet town. Unfortunately, excitement seems to happen around her. Her friend and neighbor, artist Nick Gresham, returns from a trip only to find several of his paintings slashed, reportedly by rival local artist Geoffrey Clarke. When Nick goes to have it out with him, with Eleanor in tow, they find Clarke’s body in his studio, fatally stabbed in the back. Accused of the crime, Nick ends up in jail, while Detective Inspector Scumble and DSMegan Pencarrow, Eleanor’s niece, investigate. But Eleanor isn’t leaving anything to chance—she starts doing a little investigating of her own, and soon learns that Nick is far from the only one with a compelling motive for murder.

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Olive Etchells

In a small village on the incomparable Roseland Peninsula of Cornwall sits an old round house by the sea, beloved home of the Baxter family-relative newcomers to this lovely land. The close-knit farming community has been kindly, and has taken the new arrivals to its heart. But then a murder takes place. The body of a teenage girl is washed up on the beach, discovered by the Baxters' younger son.DCI Channon-quiet compassion masking a clever mind-is the investigating officer on the case. His assistant, Sergeant Bowles, is his very opposite: abrasive, cynical, and keen to pin the crime on Luke, the Baxters' older son.And so a violent crime changes the lives of everyone it troubles. Sally Baxter finds herself protecting one son and fighting for the other, while trying to fathom her husband's odd attitude toward the murder. Then there are the devastated parents of the murdered girl and the wide mixture of reactions from their farming neighbors. And through all the mayhem, there is DCI Channon, trying to make some sense of a seemingly impossible task as he finds himself increasingly drawn to the family at the round house, and especially to Sally herself.

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Rebecca Tope

A huge funeral for Windermere's popular resident, Barbara Dodge, is taking place and florist Persimmon 'Simmy' Brown and her new assistant, Bonnie Lawson are busy compiling wreaths in preparation. There's word of a series of sinister dognappings occurring in nearby Troutbeck and whilst taking a walk up Wansfell Pike, Simmy and her father, Russell, stumble on a dog, strangled to death - it's not long before Simmy reluctantly finds herself caught up in a murder investigation ...

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Olive Etchells

Following an acrimonious split from her husband, Helen Pascoe decides to take her three children away from London to live in a lovely old house on the coast near Falmouth in Cornwall. The family settle in to their new life quickly, and begin to feel comfortable and happy once more, when the local community is stunned by a murder in its midst. A young man has been found stabbed, propped up against an ancient standing stone, at the crossroads of two narrow lanes overlooking the water - a place where legend says a gibbet once stood. It is DCI Channon's territory, and he soon finds that the victim is connected to the Pascoe family, as well as to other residents of what was once a humble fishing village.