Late revenge for Louise! The cook at the Black Feathers inherits five painted portraits from a mysterious estate. All the portraits are of Dr Desmond van Gelder - a criminal she put behind bars when she was a young agent. Louise is horrified to discover that van Gelder is still alive - and that he has taken a hostage! She has just ten days to decipher the clues on the portraits and save the young woman he is holding captive ...

About the series: There was nothing in the will about this ...

Cottages, English roses and rolling hills: that's Earlsraven. In the middle of it all: the "Black Feather". Not only does young Nathalie Ames unexpectedly inherit this cosy inn from her aunt, she also falls heir to her aunt's secret double life! She solved criminal cases together with her cook Louise, a former agent of the British Crown. And while Nathalie is still trying to warm up to the quirky villagers, she discovers that sleuthing runs in the family.

Auteur

Ellen Barksdale was born in the English seaside resort of Brighton, where her parents ran a small boarding house. Her first experience of crime fiction was with the Maigret novels by Georges Simenon (her mother is Belgian by birth). After years of reading crime fiction, she recently decided to take up writing herself. "Tea? Coffee? Murder!" is her first mystery series. Ellen Barksdale lives near Swansea with her partner Ian and their three dogs Billy, Bobby and Libby.