About this item
It has been nearly a year since I took up my position as curator of Lady Georgiana Fowling's collection of Golden Age of Mystery writers' first editions at her library in Middlebank House. I have learned that I need to take the good with the bad. The good: I have finally convinced Mrs. Woolgar to open up the collection to the public one day a week so that they too can share in Lady Fowling's passion. The bad: although he would not be my first, or even tenth, choice, at the insistence of the board Charles Henry Dill, Lady Fowling's unscrupulous nephew, is now my personal assistant.On one of our first days open to the public, Mr. John Aubrey shows up at Middlebank House and insists that Lady Georgiana Fowling is his grandmother. Mrs. Woolgar is scandalized by his claims, and Charles Henry, who feels he has been cheated out of his rightful inheritance as Lady Fowling's heir, is furious.
About the Author
USA Today best-selling author Marty Wingate shares her love of Britain in three mystery series. The First Edition Library mysteries (Berkley) are set in the lovely Georgian spa town of Bath. Here we find Hayley Burke, curator of an impressive collection of books from the Golden Age of Mystery - Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Margery Allingham, and all the rest. Too bad Hayley has never read a detective story in her life. In book one, The Bodies in the Library, she attempts to bluff her way along when a member of a local fan-fiction writers group turns up dead - in her library. In book two, Murder Is a Must (October 2020) , Hayley plans an ambitious spring exhibition and with luck finds the best venue and the best - if the most difficult - manager to put it on. Then, said manager is found dead at the bottom of a spiral staircase.Marty's first historical fiction book, Glamour Girls (Alcove Press, January 2021) is set against the backdrop of the Second World War in England and follows the story of Rosalie Wright as she goes from farm girl to Spitfire pilot. Marty also write two further mystery series. The Potting Shed books feature Pru Parke, a middle-aged American gardener transplanted from Texas to England - in the latest, Midsummer Mayhem, Pru finds herself up to her ears in murder and Shakespeare, as she builds the set for an outdoor production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Also, look for the short story Christmas at Greenoak. The Birds of a Feather mysteries follow Julia Lanchester, bird lover, who runs a tourist office in a Suffolk village - in book four, Farewell, My Cuckoo, Julia attempts to identify a murder victim found at the edge of the village while doing battle with her boyfriend's sister, who has made herself entirely too at home in Julia's cottage. Marty lives with her husband and two cats near Seattle, her local library standing in for a more colorful writing venue - say, Vita Sackville-West's tower at Sissinghurst. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and the Crime Writers Association (Britain) as well as the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Royal Horticultural Society. She has her own modest vintage collection of books from the Golden Age writers.Marty takes research seriously - she is a former how-to garden writer of three books and a countless number (at least, she stopped counting ages ago) of magazine and newspaper articles on everything from apple maggot to the prettiest daffodils and the best-smelling roses. Research took on an entirely new light when she began writing mysteries, and now she and her husband travel regularly to England and Scotland, where she plunges deeply into study concerning the next adventure for Hayley, Julia, or Pru - sparing not a few minutes a day to head to the pub.Connect with Marty on Facebook (Marty Wingate Author) or on her website: martywingate.com.
