The Shortest Journey - Softcover

Holt, Hazel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1603810552 ISBN 13: 9781603810555

Publisher: Coffeetown Press, 2010

Synopsis

Mrs. Edith Rossiter, a rich matron, also has a wealth of greedy relatives--a cold-blooded daughter, a wastrel son, and a desperate sister. Because she is in excellent health, none of them can hope to inherit anytime soon ... So when Edith vanishes from Taviscombe’s finest nursing home, the police suspect the worst, despite the lack of evidence. Mrs. Rossiter was a close friend of Mrs. Sheila Malory, who as usual applies her skills as an amateur detective to delve into the lives of the missing woman and her hopeful heirs. Was Edith addicted to sleeping pills? What did the mysterious couple seen in Edith's company want from her? The truth will be stranger and more startling than even Mrs. Malory could have possibly imagined. The Shortest Journey is the third of Hazel Holt's Mrs. Malory mysteries.

About this title

About the Author:

Hazel Holt has many devoted fans in the United States and Great Britain as a writer of "cozy" British mysteries; she has published nineteen Mrs. Malory novels at last count. She is also known to admirers of Barbara Pym as the friend and biographer who additionally edited Pym's posthumous works.

From Booklist:

Holt delivers another hugely entertaining Mrs. Malory mystery. While visiting several elderly acquaintances ensconced in the West Lodge nursing home, Sheila Malory, a comfortable middle-aged widow with a keen mind and a sharp eye for detail, becomes involved in a missing-persons investigation. When Mrs. Edith Rossiter, a gentle and timid resident of West Lodge, vanishes without a trace during a routine shopping trip, both her friends and the local police are baffled. Since her self-absorbed daughter and her ne'er-do-well son had been forcefully urging Mrs. Rossiter to release large portions of their inheritance, Sheila initially suspects them of conspiring against their mother. But as she delves more deeply into the case, she realizes that her friend's disappearance may have been deliberately staged by the victim herself. With the invaluable assistance of her son, Michael, a young law student, Sheila pieces together a multidimensional puzzle with roots in Mrs. Rossiter's unhappy youth. A diverting novel whose plot features an unexpected, climactic twist. Margaret Flanagan

About this edition

• Publisher: Coffeetown Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1603810552
• ISBN 13: 9781603810555
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 182