Anthea Fraser - Free Library Land Online

After fog forces her to spend the night in a country guesthouse called The Seven Stars, Helen Campbell reads her horoscope in the local paper. Little does she realise that by doing so she will dramatically change not only her own life, but the lives of everyone else living in the village. Ten days later, she returns to stay at The Seven Stars while attending a local course on antiques. Slow she finds herself increasingly involved in the lives of the people living there. As she arrived a girl was killed in a hit-and-run accident. But was it an accident? Or was it murder? A spate of robberies have targeted local country houses. Are they connected to the girl’s death? And what is the significance of the phrase which recurs in the horoscope column under ‘Tomorrow’s Birthday’? Whether or not it was written in the stars, Helen's stay at the guesthouse ensures that life will never be the same again... for any of them. ‘The Seven Stars’ is a gripping crime novel featuring Anthea Fraser's popular detective David Webb. Praise for Anthea Fraser: “A superbly crafted, riveting, page-turner of a read" Booklist “Ms Fraser is her dependable elegant, guileful self withholding the killer's identity till a dying fall" Sunday Times ANTHEA FRASER has written all her life but did not begin to take it seriously until after marriage, when she found herself at home with two small daughters and embarked on a correspondence course with the London School of Journalism. She wrote short stories before turning to novels of the supernatural, and then to crime. The Seven Stars is her twelfth crime novel. Praise for Anthea Fraser's books. 'A well-mannered, well-plotted and well-told story' Birmingham Post 'The book is a pleasure to read and savour' Woman Journalist 'Irresistible, all-too-human story' Dread Review of Mystery 'A well-structured book, with good balance between depiction of character and development of plot' Criminologist 'Sympathetic, well-executed book, in which full attention is paid to human feelings and failings' Yorkshire Post Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

From Kirkus Reviews

Helen Campbell's marriage to Andrew, an insurance claims adjuster is in trouble. Their two children are grown, and a restless Helen is thinking of renewing her old career in the antiques trade. Driving home one night from a visit to daughter Penelope, a university student, Helen is delayed by heavy fog and thankfully takes a room at The Seven Stars, a B&B along the way. As she's parking her car, a young woman runs out of the inn's doorway. Her body is found later that night--victim of a hit and run. Meanwhile, Chief Inspector David Webb of the nearby Shillingham police (The Gospel Makers, 1996, etc.) is trying to dredge up information from a botched attempt to break into Beckworth House- -one of a series of robberies of stately homes across the county, all of them marked by the theft of one or only a few not-always- valuable objects. Some days later Helen returns to Steeple Bayliss to take a two-week course on antiques, staying again at The Seven Stars, where, as on her first stay, she detects some odd cross- currents amongst owners Stella and Gordon Cain, Stella's sister Kate and brother-in-law Nicholas Warren; disquieting things, too, about their visitor Dominic Hardy--disturbing enough to drive Helen to the local police station, where, eventually, her total recall helps Webb solve a case in which the latest break-in has resulted in murder. Readable and fitfully intriguing, but undermined by too many coincidences, a clumsily absurd conspiracy, and an underlying motive literally not to be believed. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A Rona Parish Mystery - Journalist Rona Parish continues her popular series on local family businesses with a piece on the Willow furniture emporium. For once, there dont seem to be any skeletons in the Willow family cupboards. But when Louisa, the daughter of Ronas reserved elderly neighbours, comes to Rona with a plea for help, it seems there may be a dark secret closer to home, and all Ronas journalistic instincts are aroused . . .

From Publishers Weekly

In Fraser's leisurely sixth Rona Parrish cozy (after 2007's Rogue in Porcelain), the freelance journalist and her artist husband, Max Allerdyce, are used to knowing little about the tenants who come and go at the four-story Georgian house next door to their own in Marsborough. But when a reserved couple, Barbara and Keith Franks, and their adult daughter, Louise, become their new neighbors, Rona is intrigued to learn from Louise that she has no memory of her prior life in Canada due to an accident. Rona soon discovers that helping Louise reclaim her past is more exciting—and perilous—than her current assignment, writing about a family-owned furniture store for Chiltern Life magazine. Fraser's cozy goes down with a mild kick, like tea laced with a dash of brandy. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Freelance journalist and biographer Rona Parish just can’t stay out of dangerous situations. Her last outing resulted in her witnessing a traumatic murder while she researched the owners of a ceramics firm. She’s barely recovered from the ordeal when her editor suggests a “nice, safe” assignment—profiling a local furniture merchant. But it’s not her research on the furniture firm that causes trouble. It’s Rona’s new next-door neighbors, an elderly couple with a thirtysomething daughter who suffers from a crippling case of amnesia. When Rona befriends the young woman and tries to help her, she has no idea that she will uncover a terrible secret. Set in a British village where everyone knows everyone else, the Rona Parish series perfectly captures everyday life in the small towns of the UK and portrays the sorts of problems and issues that are faced by modern families and career women everywhere. Yet it’s not just chick lit; there’s enough suspense and mayhem to appeal to all but the hardest-boiled mystery fans. --Emily Melton

A gripping psychological mystery and a warm, sympathetic exploration of widowhood - Anna’s family hope that a South African safari holiday will help her to get over her beloved husband’s death. No one is more surprised than Anna herself when she finds herself strongly attracted to a fellow traveller, Lewis Masters, and despite her initial resistance, she is soon drawn into a new relationship. But back home, Anna’s journalist son Jonathan is being repeatedly contacted by a young woman asking for his help, even though she’s too frightened to say what is worrying her . . .

About the Author

Fraser announced at the age of five that she wanted to be an author.