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One Rose Less
A gripping murder mystery set in 1960s Australia! Perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, M.C. Beaton, Lee Strauss and P.C. James.
Suburbia can be murder … especially with a neighbour like Rose …
Sydney, 1961
When Bob Clifton witnesses a disturbing event in a block of flats near his home, everyone tells him he must be imagining things.
But Bob can’t ignore his suspicion that he’s witnessed a murder, and there’s one man he knows will listen to him: his friend, Detective Inspector Herbert Swinton.
Unable to resist the lure of a mystery, Swinton investigates … but nothing seems amiss, and when Rose Fielding — the beautiful redhead Bob claims he saw murdered — turns up safe and sound, everyone agrees Bob has been working too hard and needs to rest.
That is, until events take a dramatic turn … and this time Rose is definitely dead.
As Swinton and his wry sidekick Detective Sergeant Primrose delve into Rose’s complicated private life, they uncover a complex tale of illicit loves, dark resentments and suburban scandal.
Was Rose’s death a simple suicide, or is there more to this case than meets the eye? And will Swinton’s beloved cold meat pies be enough to fuel his powers of deduction this time?
Or has he finally bitten off more than he can chew?
The fourth book in the Inspector Swinton Mystery series, ONE ROSE LESS is a tense and twisting historical murder mystery by the Australian writer Pat Flower.
Suburbia can be murder … especially with a neighbour like Rose …
Sydney, 1961
When Bob Clifton witnesses a disturbing event in a block of flats near his home, everyone tells him he must be imagining things.
But Bob can’t ignore his suspicion that he’s witnessed a murder, and there’s one man he knows will listen to him: his friend, Detective Inspector Herbert Swinton.
Unable to resist the lure of a mystery, Swinton investigates … but nothing seems amiss, and when Rose Fielding — the beautiful redhead Bob claims he saw murdered — turns up safe and sound, everyone agrees Bob has been working too hard and needs to rest.
That is, until events take a dramatic turn … and this time Rose is definitely dead.
As Swinton and his wry sidekick Detective Sergeant Primrose delve into Rose’s complicated private life, they uncover a complex tale of illicit loves, dark resentments and suburban scandal.
Was Rose’s death a simple suicide, or is there more to this case than meets the eye? And will Swinton’s beloved cold meat pies be enough to fuel his powers of deduction this time?
Or has he finally bitten off more than he can chew?
The fourth book in the Inspector Swinton Mystery series, ONE ROSE LESS is a tense and twisting historical murder mystery by the Australian writer Pat Flower.
238 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 15, 2022
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About the author
Pat Flower
29 books2 followersPatricia Mary Bryson Flower, crime novelist and television playwright, was one of four children of James Bullen, hotel porter, and his wife Jessie Sarah, née Bryson. Pat left Worthing County High School in 1928 when the family emigrated to Australia. In the 1940s she worked as secretary for the New Theatre League in Sydney, writing radio plays and revue sketches in her spare time. She married Cedric Arthur Flower, a painter, on 4 March 1949. While they were in England from 1950 to 1955, she began to write crime novels, the first of which, Wax Flowers for Gloria, appeared in 1958. She published at least one crime novel every two years until 1975, moving from detective stories such as Goodbye Sweet William (1959)—featuring Inspector Swinton, her Australian 'Maigret' character—to psychological thrillers, among them Cobweb (1972), Slyboots (1974) and Crisscross (1976). Some of her books were translated into French and German.
Back in Sydney, Pat Flower worked as an advertising copywriter until 1963 when she began to write full time. By 1961 she was also writing film and television scripts. Her play The Tape Recorder, a Pinteresque piece for an actress and tape recorder, was televised by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1966 and produced in colour by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1967. An adaptation of her novel, Fiends of the Family 1966), for A.B.C. television won an 'Awgie' award in 1969 from the Australian Writers' Guild. In the late1960s some of her television plays were screened in the A.B.C.'s 'Australian Playhouse' series. She also wrote scripts for commercial television. In 1971 the Flowers again visited Europe where Pat gathered further material for her suspense novels. Returning to Sydney in 1972, they took separate flats at Paddington, so that she could concentrate on her writing.
Pat Flower was an amusing companion with a dry wit, but suffered from insomnia and arthritis for many years and was increasingly isolated as her health deteriorated. The two sides of her writing—comedy and horror—reflected aspects of her personality, with her novels becoming progressively darker. On the night of 1/2 September 1977 she died from the effects of poisoning by pentobarbitone, intentionally taken. Her husband survived her.
Scholarly interest in crime writing led to the republication of Vanishing Point (1993) and several critics have championed Flower's later novels as among the best of the genre in Australia.
--condensed from the entry by Susan Lever in the Australian Dictionary of Biography,
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/flowe...
Back in Sydney, Pat Flower worked as an advertising copywriter until 1963 when she began to write full time. By 1961 she was also writing film and television scripts. Her play The Tape Recorder, a Pinteresque piece for an actress and tape recorder, was televised by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1966 and produced in colour by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1967. An adaptation of her novel, Fiends of the Family 1966), for A.B.C. television won an 'Awgie' award in 1969 from the Australian Writers' Guild. In the late1960s some of her television plays were screened in the A.B.C.'s 'Australian Playhouse' series. She also wrote scripts for commercial television. In 1971 the Flowers again visited Europe where Pat gathered further material for her suspense novels. Returning to Sydney in 1972, they took separate flats at Paddington, so that she could concentrate on her writing.
Pat Flower was an amusing companion with a dry wit, but suffered from insomnia and arthritis for many years and was increasingly isolated as her health deteriorated. The two sides of her writing—comedy and horror—reflected aspects of her personality, with her novels becoming progressively darker. On the night of 1/2 September 1977 she died from the effects of poisoning by pentobarbitone, intentionally taken. Her husband survived her.
Scholarly interest in crime writing led to the republication of Vanishing Point (1993) and several critics have championed Flower's later novels as among the best of the genre in Australia.
--condensed from the entry by Susan Lever in the Australian Dictionary of Biography,
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/flowe...
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