Amendment of Life: A Mystery - Hardcover

Aird, Catherine

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312290802 ISBN 13: 9780312290801

Publisher: Minotaur Books, 2003

Synopsis

For decades, Catherine Aird’s crime novels featuring C.D. Sloan have been beloved by fans and lauded by critics for their adroit plotting, playful wit, and literate charm. With Amendment of Life, Aird delivers the lively and engrossing novel that readers have come to rely upon.

Detective Chief Inspector C.D. Sloan of the Calleshire CID is used to the occasional oddity in his relatively quiet part of the English countryside. But lately things have taken a strange turn. First, in the center of a yew maze that is the showpiece of the Tudor-era house, Aumerle Court, a body is spotted by Miss Daphne Pedlinge, the elderly chatelaine of the Court. By the time the groundskeeper actually makes it to the center, he, too, spies the body, and it is indeed dead.

Meanwhile, a few miles away, a slaughtered rabbit is left on the Bishop’s doorstep in nearby Calleford, an omen as portentous as the body in the maze. Now Inspector Sloan, with the somewhat trying personage of Constable Crosby in tow, must uncover what precisely is going on as they launch an investigation with more twists and turns than the maze itself.

About this title

From the Back Cover

Critical Praise for Catherine Aird

“Written with Catherine Aird’s characteristic brisk wit...the knotty plot is sufficiently tangled that it’s a pleasure watching Sloan unravel it.” —Orlando Sentinel on Stiff News

“There are serious issues at the root of the plot but Aird’s touch is as lightly comic as her plot is deftly cunning.” —Jon L. Breen, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine on Stiff News

“A mystery as solid as any Inspector Sloan has ever encountered. A well-plotted resolution and a solid tale.” —Chicago Sun-Times on A Going Concern

“Another lively adventure.... For those who like quiet British procedurals, with the emphasis more on wit and sly turns of phrase than on mean streets, Aird’s series is sure to please.” —Booklist on Little Knell

“Intricate, witty, and thoroughly delightful...a literate, surprising treat.” —Publishers Weekly on A Going Concern (starred review)

“Quality writing from a practiced hand.” —Library Journal on After Effects

“Witty and clever.” —Des Moines Register on A Going Concern

About the Author

Catherine Aird is the author of some twenty crime novels and story collections, most of which feature Detective Chief Inspect C.D. Sloan. She holds an honorary M.A. from the University of Kent and was made an M.B.E. Her more recent works are Little Knell (St. Martin’s Minotaur, 2001) and Stiff News (St. Martin’s Minotaur, 1999). She lives in Sturry, Kent in England.

About this edition

• Publisher: Minotaur Books
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0312290802
• ISBN 13: 9780312290801
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 240