Carnage on the Committee

"The literary cognoscenti ('the superciliati,' she calls them) hold no terror for this ribald satirist."―New York Times

When the chairperson of the prestigious Knapper-Warburton Literary Prize dies in suspicious circumstances, Robert Amiss (the token sane member of the judging panel) wastes no time in summoning Baroness "Jack" Troutbeck to step into the chair. Speculation that a killer may be targeting the judges does not worry the baroness in the slightest―it's the prospect of immersing herself in modern literature that fills her with dread. But noblesse must oblige, even when it means joining the ranks of the superciliati sitting in judgment of the literati.

With the baroness at the helm, the judges resume the task of whittling away at the shortlist. But the killer, too, has resumed work and is whittling away at the judges one by one....

Ruth Dudley Edwards is a historian and journalist as well as a mystery writer. The targets of her satirical crime novels include the gentlemen's clubs, Cambridge University, the House of Lords, journalism and literary prizes. The British Crime Writers' Association short-listed Corridors of Death for the John Creasy Award for best first novel, and Clubbed to Death and Ten Lords A-Leaping for their Last Laugh Award. She won the CrimeFest Last Laugh Award for Murdering Americans in 2008 and in 2010 the CWA Non-fiction Gold Dagger for Aftermath: the Omagh bombings and the families' pursuit of justice. Her twelfth mystery, Killing the Emperors, is a black comedy about conceptual art.