TEA ON SUNDAY is an engaging character- driven detective story that asks the question - who is the most likely suspect in an elderly woman’s circle of acquaintances to wish her dead? Part of the British Library Crime Classics series and written by Lettice Cooper, this mystery set in London will keep readers guessing as an adept investigator uncovers the secrets and motivations of this motley group.
Alberta Mansbridge has invited eight people over for tea on a snowy Sunday afternoon. As the guests arrive, they are stuck in the cold, knocking at an unopened front door. Knowing that Alberta would not leave her guests waiting unwittingly, they summoned the police and found Alberta strangled at her desk with an open checkbook nearby. The eight guests are all suspects. Who came early and killed Alberta? Was it her doctor, business manager, an ex-convict, a lady charmer, a friend with whom she had a falling out, the family firm’s managing director, her nephew, or the nephew’s insufferable wife?
TEA ON SUNDAY is a mystery in four parts and includes a closed circle of suspects, each with their own backstory with the victim. The victim, Alberta Mansbridge, is a complicated woman with a good heart and a heartbreaking romantic past. She can be demanding, but she ultimately wants the best for others. Yet, someone has taken advantage of her good nature and pushed the envelope too far. Which of the eight suspects painted themselves into a corner? DCI Corby is the chief detective investigator. He is empathetic yet observant and has the skills to uncover the clues along with Sergeant Newstead. This traditional mystery is a breath of fresh air. It is simple in its execution but hits all the right notes with its character exploration, financial motivations, and desperate measures. From the orphanage not being properly funded to the nephew reevaluating his life and marriage to the doctor and his missing first wife, the mystery includes all the right elements for readers to imagine who had the most motive. TEA ON SUNDAY is delightful and will entertain and engage readers with the trappings of another era and the mechanics of a well-plotted, character- driven, thoughtfully designed mystery.
First published in 1973 but written in the vintage mystery mode by Lettice Cooper, Tea on Sunday draws on a life lived in Leeds and London to deliver an authentic, literary detective story with a well-brewed psychological depth. This edition features includes an introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger and Edgar Award–winning author Martin Edwards.
On a bitter winter's afternoon in London, Alberta Mansbridge sets the table with teacups for nine, mulling over the guests who will be arriving within the hour: her accountant and the ex-jailbird Barry, her nephew and his ghastly new flibberty-jibbet of a wife, the Italian playboy, the family doctor, the manager of her father's company, and dear old Myra, with whom she had so recently fallen out... Alberta returns upstairs to get herself ready.
Yet as tea-time draws nigh and the guests' knocking goes unanswered, they soon discover that their host has been murdered—worse still, that the killer must have been one of their trusted number, let in early by Alberta. Faced with eight suspects whose alibis and motives are steeped in mystery, Inspector Corby joins a case in which the truth is trickling away down cold London streets and through the Yorkshire roots of Alberta's past.
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