Superfluous Death

Hazel Holt originated from Birmingham, England, where she attendedKing Edward VI High School for Girls. She studied at Newnham College,Cambridge, and went on to work at the International African Institute inLondon, where she became acquainted with the novelist Barbara Pym,whose biography she later wrote. Holt wrote her first novel in her sixties and is a leading crimenovelist.She is best known for her "Sheila Malory" series. Her son is the novelist Tom Holt.

The sleepy seaside town of Taviscombe has more than its share of gossips and schemers. It also has Mrs. Sheila Malory, a widow whose gift for judging character and unmasking murderers is as impressive as her knowledge of nineteenth-century literature. Mrs. Malory's sleuthing talents are tested once again when she comes upon the body of one of her friends, a sweet elderly lady. Miss Graham's death by poison is quite convenient for a local doctor of dubious reputation; the dead woman's refusal to move thwarted Dr. Cowley's plans to build a nursing home. But Mrs. Malory knows that nothing is as simple as it seems, especially when it is revealed that Miss Graham left a considerable fortune. Another suspicious death during a fireworks display further complicates matters. These two very different murders-one furtive, the other violent-can't possibly be related. Or can they? Superfluous Death is the sixth of Hazel Holt's Mrs. Malory mysteries.