'Stabbed?' she repeated, in horror. 'Was he really?'
'I'm afraid so. From behind. He was sitting at his desk.'
The soignée actress Tessa Crichton would rather be shopping and generally luxuriating in the pleasure of being newly married. However, she is soon embroiled in a plot involving an old acquaintance (murdered) and a friend (blackmailed). Being as shrewd as she is mischievous she begins to draw various conclusions, not all of them correct.
Many of the encounters in the story take place during Tessa's visits to a London department store, the top floor being a bar open to any customer who spends over twenty-five pounds. Here lies part of the secret which is bedevilling Robin, Tessa's husband, at Scotland Yard - who hates blackmailers more than any other criminals. But will Tessa get a bit too knowing, and will her own life then be at stake?
Murder in Married Life was originally published in 1971. This new edition features an introduction and afterword by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans.
'Miss Morice has an acute ear for dialogue and a pretty, slightly acid, wit. Every page is amusing - and there are not many books of which that could be said.' Tablet
'Relaxing, polished entertainment of high order.' Daily Telegraph
Autorentext
Anne Morice, née Felicity Shaw, was born in Kent in 1916. Her mother Muriel Rose was the natural daughter of Rebecca Gould and Charles Morice. Muriel Rose married a Kentish doctor, and they had a daughter, Elizabeth. Muriel Rose's three later daughters-Angela, Felicity and Yvonne-were fathered by playwright Frederick Lonsdale. Felicity's older sister Angela became an actress, married actor and theatrical agent Robin Fox, and produced England's Fox acting dynasty, including her sons Edward and James and grandchildren Laurence, Jack, Emilia and Freddie. Felicity went to work in the office of the GPO Film Unit. There Felicity met and married documentarian Alexander Shaw. They had three children and lived in various countries. Felicity wrote two well-received novels in the 1950's, but did not publish again until successfully launching her Tessa Crichton mystery series in 1970, buying a house in Hambleden, near Henley-on-Thames, on the proceeds. Her last novel was published a year after her death at the age of seventy-three on May 18th, 1989.