Anagram for Murder

A stranger enters the regatta. His name, read the right way round, is a confession. And somebody in the village has already solved it.Dr Constance Larwood has agreed to crew for Rafe Thurlow in the two-handed race, and to set a crossword for the regatta programme. She has not agreed to the anonymous card in her letterbox: a single cryptic clue in black capitals, which she solves in a morning and wishes she hadn't.Then Corwin Shale comes up the staithe at the wheel of a hired cruiser. He is rich, charming, Canadian, and determined to buy the staithe, the boatyard and anything else with a view of the water. He has entered the single-handed race. He says he learned to sail on this river, a long time ago.On the last night of the regatta he is found dead aboard his hired cruiser, and the whole village calls it a terrible accident.But Constance has seen his name written down, and she has done what any setter would do with eleven letters. So, she is beginning to suspect, has somebody else.With a boatyard in trouble, a detective sergeant who solves her prize puzzle every weekend, a quizmaster who corrects everyone in print, and a tortoise who walks away from people he does not like (very slowly), Constance must read a village's words more carefully than ever.An Anagram for Murder is the second Wrayham Staithe Mystery: a warm, witty, fairly clued British cosy with a word-loving sleuth, a slow-burn romance, a very old tortoise and absolutely no gore.A traditional cosy mystery: no gore, no on-page violence, no explicit content.