3.89 avg rating — 9 ratings

"In her cerebral legal mystery, Murder in Hand, Celia Conrad pulls her feisty London Probate/Estate lawyer heroine, Alicia Allen, deeper into the quagmire world of unscrupulous attorneys, the unfortunates who work with them and their unsuspecting innocent victims. In this third book of the Alicia Allen Investigates Trilogy (AAI), Conrad hits her stride as a bona fide puzzle master in the tradition of Agatha Christie. The easy-to-follow plot line keeps readers guessing and the pages turning, while great pleasures lie in Conrad's refusal--or perhaps inability--to write for the lowest common denominator of brain power. Instead she aims for the highest. IMO, if you want to roll with Alicia Allen, you better bring your A-Game (and some knowledge of the Classics wouldn't hurt). This is a terrific Italian crime romp featuring International British-Italian Probate law, Puccini and dead lawyers. Not for the stupid."

3.65 avg rating — 17 ratings

"For Wilful Murder, Book 2 in the Alicia Allen Investigates Trilogy, British author Celia Conrad has concocted a pastiche composed of the basic murder mystery elements involving disgruntled relatives, a serial killer and a dead man’s Will, and reinvented it as part-Travelogue, part-Greek Tragedy, part-Shakespeare and part-Love Story.

I highly recommend Wilful Murder if (a) you love "cozy mysteries" with their gentle no-sex-or-graphic-violence paradigms and strong, intuitive female amateur sleuths; (b) you love "cerebral mysteries" with complicated Ah Ha! plots; (c) you love a bittersweet romantic subplot where a dynamic duo slug it out until they (almost) fall into each other's arms á la Hepburn and Tracy. It will help if you’ve read Book 1, A Model Murder, as there is little exposition to bring the newbie up to speed. However, the cleverly crafted clues are worth the ride.
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3.75 avg rating — 55 ratings

"What do law firms and men’s “hostess” clubs have in common? If Conrad draws disturbing, often painfully entertaining, parallels between these two worlds where Neanderthals still roam the Earth, and a resistant female might get a bop on the head or worse.

A Model Murder is a fast-paced suspense mystery, full of twists and turns, following in the tradition of Nicci French and Sue Grafton.

Alicia Allen is a London-based Anglo-Italian lawyer on the verge of her 30th birthday whose experience of Death has been limited to sorting estate issues...until her beautiful Australian neighbor and wannabe model, Tammy, turns up raped and murdered before she can collect her first paycheck from the job she wants to quit in a sleazy men’s club. British author Conrad has painted a loving portrait of the multi-cultural melting pot that is London and her down-to-earth heroine who has no superpowers of intuition and deduction, but is quite simply a good neighbor who will stop at nothing until a wrong is made right.
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