THE SHORTEST JOURNEY

Detective & Mystery Stories Cosy Crime: Gentle Mysteries

By Hazel Holt

Synopsis

Sheila Malory investigates the disappearance of Mrs Rossiter, a wealthy nursing home resident, whose scheming daughter has been trying to get her hands on a substantial inheritance.

Sample Player

Narrator	Patricia Gallimore
Length	5hrs 30mins
Catalogue No.	7331
Publisher	Soundings Audio Books

Other audiobooks by Hazel Holt

ANY MANS DEATH

When Sheila Malory is badgered by Annie Roberts to write the village history, she grudgingly agrees. After Annie dies of food poisoning, a victim of her love of freshly-picked mushrooms, Sheila finds the circumstances too suspicious not to investigate.

THE CRUELLEST MONTH

Widow Sheila Malory has been looking forward to her stay at the Bodleian Library in Oxford, but her relaxing idyll is interrupted when a librarian, Gwen Richmond, is crushed to death beneath collapsed bookshelves. After the 'accident' proves to be murder, Mrs. Malory helps to investigate.

DEATH IN PRACTICE

Malcolm Hardy, the new partner at Taviscombe's veterinary practice, is not a popular man; but without his money the surgery would have to close. Within a few weeks of starting his new job he seems to have upset most of the town: firing one of his long-serving colleagues; installing his girlfriend as veterinary assistant at the surgery; refusing to treat stray animals for free; accusing another colleague of malpractice as well as being seen out with a married woman. As far as Sheila Malory is concerned there is little to like about the new vet. But despite his unpopularity it is still a shock when Hardy collapses and dies at the surgery. And when the post-mortem reveals that his death was unnatural, suspicion instantly falls on his former colleagues. Could somebody at the practice be a killer? Or might the thoroughly unpleasant Malcolm Hardy have other enemies with murder in mind?

A DEATH IN THE FAMILY

Bernard Prior asks his cousin, Sheila Malory, to help him research the family history. When visiting Sheila he dies in suspicious circumstances and although he was a bully and a bore, there was no reason for cold-blooded murder. What secrets has he found buried in the family history?

DEATH IS A WORD

Eva Jackson has moved back to her childhood home in Taviscombe after the untimely death of her beloved husband Alan. During a coffee morning she mentions to Sheila Malory that she fears Alan might have died an unnatural death. When Eva's body is discovered after a supposed insulin overdose, Sheila wonders if the killer might still be at large...

DEATH OF A DEAN

Deep in debt David’s only hope is his brother Francis. As the Dean of Culminster Cathedral Francis refuses to help. When he is found dead David is the prime suspect.

DELAY OF EXECUTION

Sheila Malory is delighted to be asked to help out at the prestigious Blakeney's Girls' School after a long break from teaching. But when the unpopular headmistress is found dead in the school grounds, Sheila begins to suspect that all is not as it seems at this well-to-do establishment. And it appears that there is no shortage of people with the motive for murder . . .

GONE AWAY

When pretty but avaricious Lee Montgomery disappears in the little seaside town of Taviscombe, her fiancé Charles Richardson enlists Mrs Malory’s help. The dauntless Mrs Malory soon suspects the worst. Little does she realize the terrible secrets her investigation will reveal …

LEONORA

It is twenty years since Leonora Staveley retired as an investigative journalist to live on Exmoor, surrounded only by her beloved animals. Living as a virtual recluse, her house filled with the relics of an extraordinary life, no-one was too surprised when she suffered a fatal bout of food poisoning. But Sheila Malory suspects something far more sinister was involved in the death of her friend. For a number of people had good reason to want this wealthy lady out of the way. And aside from the obvious suspects, just who was the mysterious young man seen camping near Leonora's house days before she died...?

LILIES THAT FESTER

When Michael Malory announces his engagement to Thea Wyatt, his mother, Sheila, couldn't be more delighted. But when a senior solicitor at Thea's firm dies shortly after an altercation with her, Thea is the prime suspect for his murder. However, when Sheila and Michael start the hunt for the real killer it begins to look as though practically anyone had both the will and the opportunity to kill him...

MURDER ON CAMPUS

Sheila Malory's excitement about teaching at a university in America was tempered by anxiety, but nothing could prepare her for a visit soon to be shattered by murder. When the victim is identified as Max Loring, the brother of one of Sheila's new colleagues, she embarks on her own investigation.

A NECESSARY END

While filling in for a friend at a local charity shop in the quiet English town of Taviscombe, Sheila Malory employs her detecting skills when the store's ill-tempered supervisor is found dead and everyone in town is a suspect.

NO CURE FOR DEATH

When Dr Morrison, an arrogant and cold new arrival at the Group Medical Practice, misdiagnoses a patient who later dies, rumours fly. Later he is found dead, but Sheila Malory does not believe this was an act of random violence.

THE ONLY GOOD LAWYER

Every year solicitor Graham Percy makes a tour of the West Country to visit old friends, and unfortunately for Sheila Malory, her home is one of the tiresome lawyer's ports of call. But Graham's latest stay turns out to be his last, for one morning he is found on the seafront with a fatal stab wound....

THE SILENT KILLER

When the quiet, unassuming widower Sidney Middleton is found dead in his cottage from carbon monoxide poisoning, Sheila Malory is deeply disturbed. On recent meetings the old man had seemed in rude health and the official explanation that the ageing wood-burning stove was faulty just doesn't seem to add up.

SUPERFLUOUS DEATH

In the sleepy seaside town of Taviscombe, Mrs Malory's sleuthing talents are tested when she comes upon the body of an elderly lady. Miss Graham's death by poison is quite convenient for Dr Cowley, as the dead woman's refusal to move thwarted his 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...

A TIME TO DIE

When Charlie Hamilton is found dead in his stables from a blow to the head, with only his horses as witnesses to his final moments, the entire community is shaken. Especially since Charlie's is just the first in a series of shocking and suspicious deaths. Mrs. Malory is on the case, but the trail of clues, from an unlucky horseshoe to a lethal electric fence, proves to be anything but a smooth ride.

UNCERTAIN DEATH

Sheila Malory is swept up in the organization of the Taviscombe Festival, and has to spend more and more time in the company of the unpleasant Adrian Palgrave whose overbearing manner makes him unpopular with almost everyone. But the village is shocked when his lifeless and bloody body is found. Mrs Malory has impressive credentials when it comes to solving murders, but with so many suspects, she hardly knows where to begin.