A Fine Place for Death [Hardcover]

Ann Granger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1995

When the wayward daughter of the aristocratic Devaux family is found dead, Detective Inspector Alan Markby, with the help of Meredith Mitchell, finds suspects in the girl's boyfriend, the local publican, the family retainer, and her own father.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Granger's deft plotting and elegant descriptive prose are in full play in the latest case featuring Inspector Alan Markby and his beloved Meredith Mitchell, a diplomat with the Foreign Office. Missing, however, are her delicate comic touch and her endearing eccentric secondary characters. When two young girls are brutally slain in the English market town of Bamford, Alan hopes to keep Meredith safely detached from the investigation. But both her recent speech about her career to the parish youth group and her quest for an antique Welsh dresser lead to entanglement in the lethal puzzle. Granger sets and meets a series of narrative challenges in her sixth mystery, following a daring plot with three (maybe four) murders, multiple killers, some deaths left unresolved and one victim a youngster for whom readers have developed sympathy. Despite the achievements here, readers may still miss such elements (from Murder Among Us) as the Alice Batt Rest Home for Horses and Donkeys and the members of the Society for the Preservation of Historic Bamford.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Fans of British village procedurals will appreciate this latest Detective Inspector Alan Markby title (following Where Old Bones Lie, St. Martin's, 1994). Markby and pal Meredith Mitchell search for the murderer of a teenaged girl, heiress to one of Banford's oldest aristocratic families.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 249 pages
• Publisher: St Martins Pr; 1st U.S. ed edition (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312117876
• ISBN-13: 978-0312117870
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,421,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of British style mysteries, October 4, 1998

By 

puffinswan "puffinswan" (Brigadoon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Fine Place for Death: A Meredith and Markby Mystery (Meredith and Markby Mysteries) (Paperback)

Ann Granger is one of the few authors around today who still knows how to write an authentic British mystery. She is one of the best.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Murder at the manor., July 4, 2005

By 

Linda Pagliuco "katknit" (CT, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: A Fine Place for Death: A Meredith and Markby Mystery (Meredith and Markby Mysteries) (Paperback)

Two teenagers turn up missing, then dead, in separate incidents in this quiet English village. One is the daughter of the lord of the manor. The other comes from a working class broken home. Is there a serial killer on the loose? Are the girls as innocent as they seem? Are their murders even connected? What about the ensuing deaths? Meredith does some amateur sleuthing, and CID officer Markby, who wants to marry her, wishes she'd just keep out of it. But the evidence she discovers proves invaluable, so much so that she nearly ends up dead as well. What's a copper to do?

This somewhat slow-moving mystery sustains interest with its settings (a 200 year-old mausoleum, for one), and its colorful cast of supporting characters (the village drinker, not an alcoholic, mind you, the insane lady of the manor, the man-hunting American secretary), and its Englishness. Granger is a decent writer and a good storyteller.

4.0 out of 5 stars Sixth in the series, December 29, 2008

By 

S. Schwartz "romonko" (alberta canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Fine Place for Death: A Meredith and Markby Mystery (Meredith and Markby Mysteries) (Paperback)

This book is the sixth in the Mitchell and Markby series, and the series just seems to keep getting better. These are true English village mysteries with colourful casts of characters, deft plotting and a tricky little mystery to figure out. In this book a young girl's body is found lying in a ditch and Markby has to figure out what happened. We have Meredith Mitchell now living in Bamford, so that puts her right in the thick of things. When she befriends a troubled teenage girl, she doesn't realize that it puts her right in the middle of a murder investigation. She works with Inspector Markby to try to bring a killer to justice. This is really a delightful pair of sleuths, and I am really enjoying this series.