Hazel Holt

All of Holt's books are this.
"Mrs. Malory and the Delay of Execution"

With reluctance, Sheila Malory agrees to take a temporary teaching position at a posh girls' school. She's replacing a teacher who died and her task is preparing the senior girls for college entrance exams. 

She is assured that she will be dealing with an exceptionally bright group of girls.

The girls are smart but have more than their share of oddities. All of them are self-contained and all show a morbid fascination for tragedies. Still, Sheila has promised to stick with it and stick with it she does.

When the gung-ho headmistress is found floating in the lake, it's first thought to be an accident. An investigation proves otherwise and it's soon apparent that a killer is on the loose at the school, although why the headmistress became a victim is a mystery. 

The police investigate but Sheila can't help but wonder if one of her tragedy-obsessed girls is responsible.
Hazel Holt has many devoted fans in the United States and Great Britain as a writer of “cosy” 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.

Holt originated from Birmingham, England, where she attended King Edward VI High School for Girls. She studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, and she went on to work at the International African Institute in London, where she became acquainted with the novelist Barbara Pym, whose biography she later wrote.

Holt wrote her first novel in her 60s and is a leading crime novelist. She is best known for her “Sheila Malory” series. Her son is the novelist Tom Holt.
"Mrs. Malory and the Lilies That Fester"

In a small town like Taviscombe, England, everyone knows everything about everyone-thanks to the dedicated efforts of local gossips and busybodies. 

So when the extremely unsavory Gordon Masefield is murdered, word of mouth spreads like firehellip;and brings out the worst in people. Locals and the law are pointing the finger at Sheila Maloryrsquo;s future daughter-in-law. 

Now Sheila must use her wits and her contacts to untangle the truth and discover who really killed Gordon-before rumor becomes motive, and speculation becomes deadly.

"Mrs. Malory and the Death of a Dean"

Mrs. Sheila Malory and actor David Beaumont have been friends since their salad days. Less green today, David is scrambling to save his charming, much-mortgaged cottage located across from the famed Royal Shakespeare Theatre. 

When his brother, the hated Dean of Culminster Cathedral, refuses to give him a loan, David’s last hope is his family’s stately home. But that can’t be sold until his stubborn nanny moves — or dies.
As luck would have it, she does. 

Her death appears to be an accident — until someone poisons the Dean. And David is the prime suspect. Called upon to solve this family tragedy, Mrs. Malory soon has her own list of suspicious characters — from the Dean’s mousy wife to his librarian daughter to his very nervous son … all of whom had reasons to want the Dean dead.

 But, as Mrs. Malory discovers, the evil men do lives after them — an evil that may be much closer than she realizes.
"Mrs. Malory and Death By Water"

Sheila Malory takes on the unenviable task of sorting through her dear friend Leonora’s voluminous estate when she passes on. 

Although she was in her 80s, dying from drinking contaminated water seems an unfitting end for a former journalist whose life was the stuff of novels. 

But as the main obstacle to a local land development, her demise was very convenient for certain interested parties. 

And as questions arise about the will and strangers come out of the past, Mrs. Malory investigates whether the source of the contamination — and Leonora’s death— was due to natural causes.
"Mrs. Malory and a Death in the Family"

Sheila Malory is less than thrilled when her loathsome cousin Bernard comes to Taviscombe looking for information to complete his family tree. 

After all, she's got better things to do than listen to Bernard's pompous genealogical lectures and watch him berate his mousy wife. 

But when Bernard dies suddenly in his rented cottage, it's more than family obligation that keeps Mrs. Malory on the case. 

Someone wanted Bernard out of the way, and with all the dirt he was digging up on the family, the killer could be more than kin ... and less than kind.
"Mrs. Malory Wonders Why"

In Mrs. Malory's sixth appearance as an amateur sleuth, a poisoned almond tart is the first clue that someone has. It all begins with Mrs. Dudley, doyenne of the Taviscombe "mafia," a group of aging matrons who pick up every crumb of gossip and see the most shocking things through lace curtains with their eagle eyes. 

And during a lovely chat with Mrs. Malory, she just happens to mention some troubling things about Dr. Cowley, a local physician. The greedy M.D. plans to turn a prime oceanside building, occupied by the very elderly Miss Graham, into a profitable nursing home. 

And what will happen to that poor soul if she refuses to move? As Mrs. Malory fears, the answer is most distressing: Poor Miss Graham is cruelly, unkindly, and most diabolically killed with her favorite dessert. Of course, it appears that Dr. Cowley must have done it - except that he has an ironclad alibi. 

Now Mrs. Malory is snooping in earnest, hoping it will lead her to intriguing revelations: about the physician with ambition, about a weak-willed nephew and his pushy wife, about a pretty neighbor of questionable virtue, and about a very large sum of money. Of course, Mrs. Malory's persistent inquiries may also get her killed.

Mrs. Malory returns to Taviscombe, England, only to discover that a devious doctor/landlord is trying to evict one of her elderly friends in order to build a profitable nursing home. When her friend turns up dead, it seems like a cut and dried case to the amateur sleuth. 

But soon she finds that things aren't as simple as they look, and even those she trusts have something to hide.