Murder by the Book (Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries 4) Read online

  She is a frequent speaker at literature festivals and writers’ events, and is founder and director of the free Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival.

  A regular contributor to two local community magazines, the award-winning Tetbury Advertiser and the Hawkesbury Parish News, she has published two collections of her columns, Young by Name and All Part of the Charm. These publications offer insight into her own life in a small Cotswold village where she lives with her Scottish husband and their teenage daughter.

  Acknowledgements

  Enormous thanks to all the people who have helped make this a better book:

  Orna Ross for her wise and sensitive mentoring

  Novelists Lucienne Boyce and Belinda Pollard for their insightful and tactful beta reading

  Alison Jack, my editor, always patient, capable, and dependable

  Rachel Lawston of Lawston Design for another wonderful book cover design

  Zoe Gooding of Zedolus Proofreading for peace of mind

  My friend Jacky Taylor for her entertaining and useful observations about the hands of bakers

  My daughter Laura for reminding me of the Mark Twain cited at the start of the book

  Lorna Ferguson, for suggesting an appropriate book for Edward Munro to read

  Elizabeth Tebby Germaine for alerting me to the history of the nursery rhyme Ding Dong Dell

  Sharon, Alex and Natasha Gray for their advice on reference books about saints

  I hope readers concerned about Sophie’s literary ignorance in the first three books in the series may be heartened by her progress in this book, even if she doesn’t always get her references quite right. Working in a bookshop is making her absorb knowledge and culture almost by osmosis. Ah, the power of the traditional independent bookshop, and of the humble, old-fashioned book in our high-tech age!

  Debbie Young

  Copyright Information

  MURDER BY THE BOOK by Debbie Young

  © Debbie Young 2018

  Published by Hawkesbury Press 2018

  Hawkesbury Upton, Gloucestershire, England

  Cover design by Rachel Lawston of Lawston Design

  All rights reserved. No part of this ebook may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. Any similarity between the characters and situations within its pages and places or persons, living or dead, is unintentional and coincidental.

  ISBN (paperback) 978-1-911223-26-9

  ISBN (ebook) 978-1-911223-25-2