Mrs. Malory and the Only Good Lawyer

Mrs. Malory Mysteries #8

by Hazel Holt

A boring lawyer who visits annually once again descends upon amateur detective Mrs. Malory, but this time she becomes suspicious of his activities and discovers that he has been blackmailing many of her late husband's old friends. Reprint.

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

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 21, 1997

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

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kudos to Hazel Holt for another successful, wonderful and charming Mrs Malory cosy mystery. There’s plenty of intrigue and a terrific cast of characters to keep you second-guessing. Shiela is, as always, her usual charming, perceptive self. This one had me playing hunches until the end. A very enjoyable cosy.

[Tanya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hazel Holt books never disappoint me; they're good cozy mysteries but never off the charts yet I continue to hunt them down to read. The writing takes you right into the village and the characters; this mystery involves a nosy lawyer from Sheila Mallory's late husband's friend circle. He's not one that Sheila nor her son, Michael, wish to entertain yet they do in obligation. The lawyer ends up being the victim of murder and the suspect list is long. Holt's books read a but like Agatha Christie but not too wordy or overly descriptive - very good!!

[Helen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first of this series that I've read and I certainly enjoyed it enough to read some of the other books.
We meet a group of "friends" created during their school/university years. Sheila Malory is involved because her deceased husband was part of the group and Graham Percy makes a point of staying at their home once a year. On the last day of his most recent visit Graham is stabbed to death in a shelter on the beach Promenade. His wallet is found with nothing missing and the police are convinced it is not a casual stabbing but who has a motive to kill this boring solicitor. No one liked him but it takes more than dislike to drive a person to violent murder.
The book is full of theatre references, but mostly familiar names.
What I mostly like was the way Sheila is a very real person, reacting the way real people do and saying logical things mostly. One thing that seemed wrong was a letter the police found at a crime scene. They opened bills ready to be mailed but the letter addressed to Sheila was handed to her unopened and I really don't think they would have. They might have given it to her eventually but not until they had read it.

[Alison C · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sheila Malory dreads the annual visit to her home from Graham Percy, an old schoolmate of her late husband and an exceedingly tiresome old bore. Still, it is only for four days and, if she rallies friends to come to dinner a couple of times, she just *might* get through it without blowing her top completely. However, on the third day Graham goes out for his usual early morning walk, only to be stabbed to death in a bus shelter by the sea! At first the police think it’s a robbery gone wrong, but when his wallet shows up intact, they must begin looking closer to home….The eighth Sheila Malory book is quite as charming as the earlier ones, although perhaps harder to find (for some reason, only the first seven are available as e-books; I found a used copy of this title, but it took a while). This is, I think, the first time that non-series characters from earlier books show up or are referenced, which was a nice touch. I also like the fact that most of the victims in this series more or less deserve it, one way or another. I must admit to getting tired of Sheila’s son Michael - a grown man, living at home and working as a lawyer, yet he expects Sheila to do all his cooking, laundry, etc., and worse, she does it! Rather passé even in the 1990s, I would think. In spite of that, Sheila remains an engaging lead character, and the story is quite entertaining; recommended.

[Kate · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Every year solicitor Graham Percy tours the West Country visiting old school friends Professor Bryan Shelley, the author Paul Heywood and Sir Alec Patmore, a famous theatrical knight now confined to a wheelchair. Unfortunately for Sheila Malory, her home in Taviscombe is also one of the tiresome lawyer's ports of call. Graham's life is so neatly organized that, one morning, Sheila is concerned when he doesn't return on time from his walk along the sea-front. She goes to look for him, but is horrified to learn that he has already been found fatally stabbed in a shelter along the Promenade. At first the police believe Graham was mugged, for no valuables or identification can be found. But then the dead man's wallet is washed ashore, with all the cash and credit cards intact. It seems the lawyer was the victim of a premediated murder ..."
~~back cover

Intriguing little book. Why? Why was he murdered at all? And why here, Taviscombe, where he knows no one but Sheila and Michael Malory. Was it something from his past? Or his present? Sheila of course, manages to discover the murderer by dint of talking to the three other friends, and discovering their alibis. But were these alibis watertight?

[Pamela Mclaren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sheila Malory is saddled with a visit from an old acquaintance of her late husband's. She doesn't really like the man but she feels honor bound to entertain the man, as her husband and his friends had been doing for far too many years.

But this time the visit proves deadly and Sheila, as is her wont, is soon looking at those old friends and acquaintances who, like her, didn't particularly like the man but were tied to him by old secrets.

And it's those old secrets and their cost that make up the bulk of this absorbing tale. I've read a number of Hazel Holt's work and I have to say that this one seemed the most serious to me. This is a tale of the sad life of one man who was an awkward and friendless child who grew to be a young man who forced himself on others and made them pay for his unhappiness. Who would do this to himself? And what a price was paid by those who tolerated him. Holt handles it with great depth and feeling.

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm definitely enjoying the Mrs. Mallory books. I hardly ever read a physical book anymore - but this book was never put into eBook form that I could find. I actually purchased a copy from a used bookseller to get to read it! It's a cleverly crafted murder mystery, cozy in that there is no actual violence and we didn't know the victim very well. Just enough clues and red herrings to make it engaging, although as usual for me with most authors about 2/3rds of the way thru I was fairly sure I knew the outcome. No diet culture trigger warnings.

[Katie Bee · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fast, pleasant read. The plot wasn't terribly inventive, but the prose and general feel of the book was good. Mrs. Malory is a delightful sleuth, and I'll be keeping an eye out for other books in the series.

[Tommie Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book with the good lawyer is really bad. His death improves to be good news to quite a few people who are now on Mrs. Malory's list of possible killers. In the end, you feel sorry for the people who were being blackmailed by this not so good lawyer. The ending is interesting

[Fran · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the style. As promised, it's a classic English matron cum snooper, with plenty of presumptuousness, the big reveal. Would give it another star but for so much cattiness and talking behind the backs of others, but perhaps that's not foreign to these characters.
Enjoyed it.

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A seaside village murder involving a longtime "friend" of the family on one of his imposed visits, whom nobody seems to mourn. Mrs. Malory his hostess finds her friends are suspects. Good theatrical flavor. Unexceptional.

[Helen Campbell · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a British cozy mystery. Unfortunately, too much cozy and not enough mystery. Boring.

[Jessica Geist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun cozy mystery series

[Martha Kearsley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the Mrs. Malory books. They are cozy mysteries that aren't too cozy.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the 8th book in the Mrs. Malory cozy series by Hazel Holt.

Once again this is a warm, cozy, mystery, it's a fast read and the mystery is a very good one, this time the victim is an old friends of Sheila's husband, a lawyer, who no one seems to like, including Sheila and her son, David, but who no one can seem to say no to when he makes his yearly visits to his friends.

He is a boring, somewhat demanding person, who after he dies and Sheila does some amateur investing of her own also seems to have been a thoroughly unlikable individual and definitely not like by any of his so called friends.

The mystery is interesting but what interests me the most as usual is all the goings on in the village. I especially like Sheila's best friend Rosemary's mother. Her gossip and knowledge of the history of quite alot of the happenings in the village once again help Sheila track down a killer that no one seems to want caught.

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hazel Holt's amateur sleuth, Mrs. Malory, is a literary critic, sometime literary executor, and also a doer of good works in her seaside village. Hazel Holt herself was a good friend and the literary executor of Barbara Pym, and her mysteries show a similar sensibility. In this book, a houseguest (law school classmate of the late Mr. Malory) is murdered during his early morning walk along the seaside. His annual visit has never been eagerly anticipated, which somehow makes his death more disturbing to Sheila Malory. As usual, she moves through several suspects and red herrings before finally learning who the killer is. Nice light reading especially for those who enjoy sardonic comments about English village life.

[Virginia Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mrs. Malory looks into the possible motives for the murder of a rather unpleasant old school friend of her late husband. When she discovers that three other school friends -- all much less unpleasant -- all were being blackmailed by the victim, she is faced with an ethical dilemma. Should she share what she knows with Inspector Roger Eliot or protect the reputations of three men whose transgression occurred when they were just boys?

[Jeanette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good one. With tons of visiting and gossip and what Sheila does best. And Mrs. Dudley doing her thing at just the wrong moment too. This is the first book (I'm reading in order)where I was certain of the deed doer straight on. But that little mattered to the mix. In these delightfully light of manners and strong character context novels within the English West Country, the cream is there regardless.

[Angie Rhodes · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books by Hazel Holt are a treat, not so heavy that you lose the will to live, and not to light, that you can't be bothered.
Shelia has a guest to stay, Graham Percy,an old friend of her late husbands. and not a very nice man at all, but is he that bad, that somebody, has taken unto them selves to kill him? or was it as the police say, a mugging?
Maybe not, as his wallet, still full of money and credit cards. is washed up, on the shore, not far from where his body was found,,,,

[Judy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amazing how often people in Mrs. Malory's small town blackmail each other. Perhaps she is making a point that that's what small towns do to their residents. And just a small gripe on my 4th Mrs. Mallory: it annoys me the way she waits on those animals hand and foot.

[Julie]

i like all of them - but this one was above the norm in plot and figuring out 'whodunnit'

[Susanne49 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book. Very satisfying ending and unexpected. Loved it.

[Carol · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good read, as always.

[Maureen Hetzel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting plot full of well drawn characters. Fun to read

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of my favorites. The murderer was quite obvious. Still, it was a good book

[Helen Fleischer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blackmailing swine

[Marty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m enjoying this “cozy mystery series” featuring a widowed Literary Critic in her 50s living in a small town in England. [note the similarities with Jessica Fletcher of “Murder She Wrote”] The story begins with Mrs. Malory (Sheila) getting a note to expect the yearly visit of one of her dead husband’s school chums, Graham. Graham, a lawyer, never married and once a year goes on a trip to visit 4 old friends from school… but none of the old friends (Shiela’s husband Peter was one) Even though Peter has been dead for years, Graham still stops by and expects to be waited on and listened to. He is not shy in telling everyone what to do and think. It was almost a relief when he is murdered while out on his morning walk by the sea before returning to Shiela’s for breakfast. Of course, Shiela must help figure out who killed Graham, and in doing so she digs up a lot of history that had been kept hidden.