Mrs. Malory and No Cure for Death

Mrs. Malory Mysteries #16

by Hazel Holt

John Morrison is a brilliant doctor, but his bedside manner has made many enemies in Taviscombe among both his peers and patients. So no one is surprised when he is stabbed to death-but Mrs. Malory is surprised when she uncovers numerous suspects for both motive and murderer.

Genres: Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Cozy Mystery, Fiction, British Literature, Detective, Cozy

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Hazel Holt is a British novelist. She studied at King Edward VI High School for Girls in Birmingham, England, and then Newnham College, Cambridge. She went on to work at the International African Institute in London, where she became acquainted with the novelist Barbara Pym, whose biography she later wrote. She also finished one of Pym's novels after Pym died.

Holt wrote her first novel in her sixties, and is a leading crime novelist. She is best known for her "Sheila Malory" series. Her son is the novelist Tom Holt.

Reviews

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've read a few of the Mrs Malory series now and always enjoy them. They are easy to read with a murder mystery nestling gently amongst the jam making and charity shop volunteering. Sheila Malory is very involved in the community she lives in and has a large circle of friends and acquaintances, so she is always well placed to start asking all the right questions when, as frequently happens, there is a suspicious death in the area. If she goes to the doctors or vets there is always the daughter of an old family friend working there to fill her in on what's going on.

Although there are regular characters that appear in each book - grandchildren who get older, friends who get promoted or retire and so on - the series can be dipped into in any order.

[Damaskcat · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new member of the Taviscombe GP practice seems not to be terribly popular. He is quite aloof and doesn't seem to have the same friendly bedside manner as the other doctors. He seems to be affected the usual relaxed atmosphere and even the patients have noticed. When he is murdered during morning surgery while Sheila Malory is sitting in the waiting room she is naturally curious about who might have done it.

As Sheila goes about her normal life she accumulates a lot of information about the victim but she still doesn't feel she has got to the bottom of the mystery and the police seem equally baffled by the murder. Then a friend of the dead man is also found dead a potential scandal is revealed.

I thought this book was well written and I didn't work out who had committed the murder until it was about to be revealed. I like mysteries which are set firmly in real every day life, where people worry about getting the washing done and putting food on the table at the same time as investigating a murder. It's a pity that several books which precede this one in the series are not yet available as ebooks.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good solid comfort read from the ever dependable Hazel Holt.

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mrs. Malory is at it again — the senior academic seems to get around as usual in her neighborhood and somehow gets everyone to confess something to her that eventually leads to the solution to some mystery.

In this outing she is waiting to see a doctor at her local clinic — she's fallen and badly strained her wrist — when its announced that there's been an accident. And as her usual way, she goes up to see if the nurses are OK and it is then that she finds out that one of the doctors, not her usual, has been stabbed to death.

Who would have wanted to kill Dr. John Morrison? He was seen by several people as stand offish, but surely that's no reason to kill him? Sheila Malory, like the police, are soon on the case. And in her usual way, Sheila discovers an affair with a married woman, friends of the man with secrets, and a friend of her own who knew and was very close with the victim. But every clue seems to lead no where for Sheila or the police. It's really up to Sheila to come up with something.

This is a charming, easy to read mystery, with a clever solution but one that no reader would have been able to guess from the story line. Still for a quite afternoon of entertainment, this is good reading.

[Marty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the Mrs. Malory series, but this one was a bit more confusing that the others I have read. It would be a bit difficult to figure out the characters if you had not read earlier stories because Holt did not identify the reoccurring characters as well as she has in the other books: a simple chart at the beginning would have been a help. Luckily, I remembered the connections…. And, although I did not notice it until I finished the book, there was a give-away clue in the picture on the cover of the paperback I read. As the story opens, Mrs. Malory (Sheila) has broken her wrist and is waiting in the Surgery for the doctor to check it. Things are running late so Sheila talks with most of the people also waiting. Several make disparaging comments regarding the new physician. Before Sheila gets seen by the doctor, the waiting patients are told that the surgery must close and they must be rescheduled. – The reason, Sheila finds out, is that the new Dr. has been stabbed to death in his office. It seems there are a number of possible suspects… and Sheila has ties to most of them. Can she help untangle the complicated stories?? (Of course she can, but it takes awhile!)

[Diane McKenzie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read out of sequence but I think the series setting of Taviscombe shows tremendous promise with the town's characters, especially Mrs. Mallory. Lots of twists and turns in the investigation plus the surprise of how the solving of the murder is all pieced together.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this series. Almost at the end.

[Kabaddi Mom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty interesting British cozy.
The usual cozy types have a tendency to be over descritptive bordering on boring, but this book was far from it. Well paced, and a good mystery.

[Susan Ferguson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mrs. Malory is a widow whose best friend Rosemary's son-in-law in an inspector in the CID. Mrs. Malory has fallen and fractured her wrist and so is requried to go to the clinic to have it checked. The cast is removed and she starts physical therapy, but she needs to have her wrist checked one more time by her doctor. There is something going on with the clinic practice. Dr Joanna Stevens is pregnant and will need to be leaving for awhile on the birth of her child, 2 of the doctors are doing private research so it is getting difficult to get an appointment. She has seen Dr MacDonald unhappy about something in the practice. Then Dr Morrison, an arrogant self-assured doctor who doesn't seem overly concerned to some of the residents at Taviscombe, is killed. Sheila has an old friend that she grew up with, Nora Burton, who lived next-door to Dr Morrison. She explains to Sheila some of his character. He used to come by often to sail with her father when he was alive and was regarded as one of the family. He was a man obsessed with his research and proving everything to his satisfaction and was doing important DNA research on inherited diseases. He was often abrupt with his patients, but surely that wasn't enough to get him stabbed in the clinic?
So, as Sheila talks with her friends and neighbors, she gradually gets a picture of what he was like. Her friend Nora told her he was being stalked and that he was having an affair with someone he called J. Sheila discovers that the person stalking him was a receptionist at the clinic. So, as Sheila and Roger compare notes, they begin to suspect the reason for the crime. Then Alan Johnson calls to say his sister had been hit by a car and killed at a dangerous intersection. And some of the last bits of the puzzle begin to fall into place.

[Alison C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Re-read. When an unpopular physician is found stabbed to death in his consulting room, Sheila Malory is not terribly surprised as so many people found the man arrogant and, perhaps, complicit in the death of one of his patients. Since she herself was in the waiting room at the time of the incident, she feels more than usually compelled to find out whatever she can about the case, and the fact that she knows many of the suspects very well helps her to help the police discover the truth….I very much enjoy this cozy series, set in the fictional town of Taviscombe and featuring a slightly more modern Miss Marple type of amateur sleuth; this particular entry, the 16th in the series, continues to showcase life in a small English town, in this case in the early 2000s. However, I have some criticisms of the book because the solution to the mystery comes somewhat out of left field, with no hints given as to the possibilities (unless, of course, I as a reader managed to miss them!); this made the ending feel rushed and not quite satisfying. Still, an enjoyable read overall, so mildly recommended.

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was like reading an episode of Midsomer Murders, and I must say it would've worked better on TV than in print. There wasn't really enough to flesh out a whole novel, whereas it would've filled an hour or 90 minutes on the screen nicely.

The creation of the cosy English village and Mrs Malory in particular was deftly done, but I couldn't get interested in the minutiae of their lives. One thing I found especially annoying was the way none of them would talk on the phone - are they still on a gas-powered switchboard and worried the operator will be listening in? Instead, they were all constantly ringing each other up and arranging to meet each other tomorrow to discuss the next development in the plot. And of course, every time Mrs Malory had one of these phone calls, it was an excuse for an entire scene where we got to hear about Tizzy and Flopsy or whatever her pets were called, and whether the bathroom cabinet needed tidying, and . . . etc.

It seemed odd that Mrs Malory was virtually a consultant to the police. I know that's the conceit which works for Miss Marple and Poirot, but it doesn't seem to work so well in the modern world. Or maybe that's just me.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 16th book in the series by Hazel Holt about the wonderful and lovable Mrs. Sheila Malory.

Once again I visited the cozy little English village of Taviscombe and read about all of Mrs. Malory's friends, family and pets. I love the English village, even with the occasional murder happening, this time a very brilliant, but arrogant doctor is found stabbed to death in his office and Mrs. Mallory must sift through all the suspects to track down the killer.

I was a little surprised at the identity of the killer in this one and enjoyed trying to follow clues that led Mrs. Mallory to her conclusion.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The death of a brusque new doctor in the local practice sets off a lot of suspicion and gossip, gossip, gossip in the little town of Tavistock. Sheila Malory was one of the people in the waiting room at the time, and certainly wonders about the murder, especially when she learns that an old friend of hers admired and respected the doctor, who wasn't universally popular. But the suspects, one after another, are proved to have alibis, and the police are at a loss, until fate intervenes.

[Donna Mcnab · Rating 4 out of 5]

This cosy mystery almost reminded me of the "Miss Marple" novels. Sheila Malory, a woman of "certain age" is very involved in the life in her small village of Taviscombe. When Dr. Morrison is found stabbed to death in his office, Sheila happens to be sitting in the waiting room and her connection to various people involved in the murder keeps her wondering and trying to figure out what happened. A lovely little mystery to read, if you like this genre.

[Trina Hollis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This cosy mystery almost reminded me of the "Miss Marple" novels. Sheila Malory is very involved in the life in her small village of Taviscombe. When Dr. Morrison is found stabbed to death in his office, Sheila happens to be sitting in the waiting room and her connection to various people involved in the murder keeps her wondering and trying to figure out what happened. A lovely little mystery very easy to read.

[Carol Peace · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book and a great comfy read. I really enjoyed this mystery/crime it was a very easy read and when the doctor got himself murdered in the surgery whilst there was a queue of people wainitg was not only awful but very inconvenient. Shiela Mallory was in the waiting room and as usual works her way discretly round the suspects to see what she thinks happened. She doesnt however soo the final twist coming. I really enjoyed thi book.

[Virginia Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

At first it seems that the murder victim in the case is -- like all of the others Mrs. Malory gets involved in -- a thoroughly unpleasant character who probably deserved what he got. But the more Sheila Malory learns about Dr. John Morrison, the more she sees to like and the more she worries about what role her old friend Nora might have played in his death.

[Angie Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another little murder mystery, by Hazel Holt,
if you had a doctor,who managed to rub people up the wrong way,was abrumpt,and had not a very nice bedside manner, would you want him dead? somebody wanted Dr,M dead, and Sheila is going to find out who. I am a big fan of Hazel's books, and this is one of her best,,,

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was especially interesting. Not only re Mrs. Malory's listening to some heart felt life stories, but also in looking at the doctors' waiting rooms re the medical context of this plot. Too many patients and too few doctors, does not work well. Also lots of Mrs. Dudley and it is summertime on the Channel. And a cricket fest; how can you go wrong with that?

[Shirley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another good British cozy. This time doctor not generally well-liked suddenly found dead in his surgery.

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 3 out of 5]

end felt like a cheat, a ringer

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

All of this series is very entertaining and a fast read. This has more of a surprise about the killer than her usual stories.

[Julie]

getting old, but, have to say again, it was another good one. they are all like visiting a friend. the everyday things she writes about are what i enjoy - the mystery is very secondary for me.

[Barbara Schade · Rating 3 out of 5]

I agree with many of the other reviewers - I can understand the term "British cozy" now. A comfortable read - not real exciting, but one interesting enough that you stay with.

[Homerun2 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars Reliably entertaining series, traditional British village cozy.

[Denise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not much happens in this book. The entire story is told as conversations between the characters. There are no clues given, just speculation, and then the murderer is sprung on the reader at the end.