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Alibi for a Witch
Lester Ballard's death is a mysterious affair, not least because of the strange attire he is found dead in. Ruth Seabright, governess to Lester's son, is completely baffled. She finds the body but cannot find her charge, nor can she work out who has been searching through her room.
- GenresMystery
188 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1952
About the author
Elizabeth Ferrars
91 books28 followersAka E.X. Ferrars.
Born Morna Doris McTaggart in Rangoon, Burma of a Scottish father and an Irish-German mother, she grew up in England where she moved at age six. She attended Bedales school and then took a diploma in journalism at London University.
Her first two novels, 'Turn Single' (1932) and 'Broken Music' (1934), came out under her own name, Morna McTaggart. In the early 1930s she married her first husband but she left him, moved to Belsize Park in London and lived with Dr Robert Brown, a lecturer in botany at Bedford College in 1942. She eventually divorced her first husband in October 1945 and married Dr, later Professor, Brown.
It was in 1940 that her first crime novel 'Give a Corpse a Bad Name' was published under the pseudonymn that she had adopted, Elizabeth (sometimes Elizabeth X. - particularly in the USA) Ferrars, the Ferrars her mother's maiden name. This novel featured her young detective Toby Dyke, who was to feature in four other of her novels.
When her husband was offered a post at Cornell University in the USA, the couple moved there but remained only a year before returning to Britain. They travelled with her husband's work, on one occasion visiting Adelaide when he was a visiting professor at the University of South Australia, and later moved to Edinburgh where her husband was appointed Regius Professor of Botany and they lived in the city until 1977 when, on her husband's retirement, they moved to Blewsbury in Oxfordshire where they lived until her sudden death in 1995.
She continued to write a crime novel almost every year and in 1953 she was a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association of which she later became chairperson in 1977.
As well as her short series of works featuring Toby Dyke, she wrote a series featuring retired botanist Andrew Basnett and another series featuring a semi-estranged married couple, Virginia and Felix Freer. All in all she wrote over seventy novels, her final one 'A Thief in the Night' being published posthumously.
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor described her as having "a sound enough grasp of motives and human relations and a due regard for probability and technique, but whose people and plot are so standard".
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
Born Morna Doris McTaggart in Rangoon, Burma of a Scottish father and an Irish-German mother, she grew up in England where she moved at age six. She attended Bedales school and then took a diploma in journalism at London University.
Her first two novels, 'Turn Single' (1932) and 'Broken Music' (1934), came out under her own name, Morna McTaggart. In the early 1930s she married her first husband but she left him, moved to Belsize Park in London and lived with Dr Robert Brown, a lecturer in botany at Bedford College in 1942. She eventually divorced her first husband in October 1945 and married Dr, later Professor, Brown.
It was in 1940 that her first crime novel 'Give a Corpse a Bad Name' was published under the pseudonymn that she had adopted, Elizabeth (sometimes Elizabeth X. - particularly in the USA) Ferrars, the Ferrars her mother's maiden name. This novel featured her young detective Toby Dyke, who was to feature in four other of her novels.
When her husband was offered a post at Cornell University in the USA, the couple moved there but remained only a year before returning to Britain. They travelled with her husband's work, on one occasion visiting Adelaide when he was a visiting professor at the University of South Australia, and later moved to Edinburgh where her husband was appointed Regius Professor of Botany and they lived in the city until 1977 when, on her husband's retirement, they moved to Blewsbury in Oxfordshire where they lived until her sudden death in 1995.
She continued to write a crime novel almost every year and in 1953 she was a founding member of the Crime Writers' Association of which she later became chairperson in 1977.
As well as her short series of works featuring Toby Dyke, she wrote a series featuring retired botanist Andrew Basnett and another series featuring a semi-estranged married couple, Virginia and Felix Freer. All in all she wrote over seventy novels, her final one 'A Thief in the Night' being published posthumously.
Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor described her as having "a sound enough grasp of motives and human relations and a due regard for probability and technique, but whose people and plot are so standard".
Gerry Wolstenholme
November 2010
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 26, 2014
Classic 1950s crime fiction. Ferrars' writing develops characters through the use of internal dialogue and conflict, and with descriptions of subtle body language. Throughout the story the reader has an excellent sense of place with clues scattered and misdirection in each chapter for the mystery lover to solve. A perfect murder mystery with intrigue, suspense and characters you can root for.
April 16, 2023
*Solid 3*
A perfectly serviceable 1950s mystery novel that I picked up from a flea market in Maine for $3. Very short & breezy. Our protagonist Ruth is a bit clueless and passive, but the mystery wraps up satisfyingly enough at the end.
I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to seek this out, but it was a nice way to pass a few hours.
A perfectly serviceable 1950s mystery novel that I picked up from a flea market in Maine for $3. Very short & breezy. Our protagonist Ruth is a bit clueless and passive, but the mystery wraps up satisfyingly enough at the end.
I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to seek this out, but it was a nice way to pass a few hours.
April 15, 2013
The front cover proclaims that Ferrars "may be the closest of all to Christie in style, plotting and general milieu". Sorry as I am to admit it, I have yet to read any of Christie's novels so cannot offer my opinion on that comment. Nevertheless, I did find myself enjoying this book. The plot is fairly diverting and the prose easy to digest yet descriptive enough for the reader to get a good feel for the milieu. The novel is also very short. If you feel like a snack rather than a longer read and are partial to murder mysteries, do give this one a go.
July 11, 2015
Another great mystery from the underappreciated Elizabeth Ferrars. A classic whodunit with an unusual setting in a picturesque seaside town in postwar Italy, with plenty of British expats to go along with the Italian locals. Interesting characters, an exotic locale, a puzzling mystery and a great ending make this a fantastic read.
January 12, 2017
I found the character of Nicky to be somewhat undefined and Ruth very indecisive.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews