Ethelred Tressider is a crime writer with problems. His latest novel is going nowhere, mid-life crisis is looming and he's burdened by the literary agent he probably deserves: Elsie Thirkettle, a diminutive but determined individual who claims to enjoy neither the company of writers nor literature of any sort. But however bad things look they can always get worse, as Ethelred discovers when his ex-wife, Geraldine, vanishes close to his Sussex home. When the disappearance becomes a murder enquiry, the police quickly decide that Geraldine Tressider has been the victim of a local serial killer. Elsie begs to differ, on the grounds that the killer's other victims had been Sad Cows, whereas Geraldine was a Scheming Bitch another species entirely and no serious serial killer would murder one in mistake for the other ...Soon the indefatigable Elsie has bullied Ethelred into embarking upon his own investigation, but as their enquiries proceed, she begins to suspect that her client's own alibi is not as solid as he claims. The Herring Seller's Apprentice is an appallingly funny murder mystery, packed with dizzying plot twists and peopled by a memorable cast of eccentrics. 'Masterful' Financial Times 'A classic detective novel' Scotsman 'Unusually accomplished' Helen Dunmore
L C Tyler is a British writer of crime and other fiction. He grew up in Essex and studied at Jesus College Oxford and City University in London. During a career with the Civil Service and the British Council he lived in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sudan, Thailand and Denmark, none of which places provides the slightest inspiration for his work.
He is now based in Islington and West Sussex. He is married and has two children and one dog. Sadly, Amazon rules prevent the inclusion of a dog in the author photo - the dog is easily the more photogenic of the two.
His first novel, the Herring Seller's Apprentice, was published in the UK in 2007 and in the US in 2009. It was been nominated in the US for an Edgar and for a Barry Award, and was short-listed in the UK for the Last Laugh Award. Subsequent novels in the "Elsie and Ethelred" series are Ten Little Herrings (UK 2009, US 2010), also Edgar-nominated, and The Herring in the Library (UK 2010, US 2011), which won the Last Laugh Award. Herring on the Nile will be published in the UK in July 2011. Outside the series, his humorous (non-crime) novel A Very Persistent Illusion was published in March 2009.
L C Tyler writes occasional short stories; one of these ("Richard Remembered") won an Ian St James Award in 1993. Others have been published in magazines and anthologies. He also writes bad poetry, some of which he is able to sneak into his novels by having bad poets as central characters.
