An Embarrassment of Corpses (Oliver Swithin Mysteries Book 1)

Scotland Yard is hunting the worst kind of serial killer--one with a sense of humor. When children's book author Oliver Swithin, reluctant creator of the notorious \"Finsbury the Ferret,\" finds an old friend's body floating in a Trafalgar Square fountain, he can't convince the police to treat the death as a murder. But then more corpses turn up daily­­--on a tube station platform, in a botanical gardens hothouse, even in the middle of Piccadilly Circus -- each murdered in an increasingly bizarre manner. It seems that a serial killer is at play, using London's landscape as his game board. Oliver joins his uncle, Detective Superintendent Tim Mallard, in a race to uncover the pattern behind the growing number of deaths. But even if they solve the murderer's puzzle, will it help them identify the next victim before the killer strikes again? And will Oliver ever reveal his secret passion for Mallard's assistant, the forbidding Detective Sergeant Effie Strongitharm? And what does any of this have to do with a battery-operated ferret, the works of Lewis Carroll, the great London Scorpion Scare, the episode of the nude Macbeth, and Underwood Tooth, the world's leading expert on being ignored? Scotland Yard is hunting the worst kind of serial killer"one with a sense of humor.When children's book author Oliver Swithin, reluctant creator of the notorious "Finsbury the Ferret," finds an old friend's body floating in a Trafalgar Square fountain, he can't convince the police to treat the death as a murder.But then more corpses turn up daily­­"on a tube station platform, in a botanical gardens hothouse, even in the middle of Piccadilly Circus"each murdered in an increasingly bizarre manner. It seems that a serial killer is at play, using London's landscape as his game board.Oliver joins his uncle, Detective Superintendent Tim Mallard, in a race to uncover the pattern behind the growing number of deaths. But even if they solve the murderer's puzzle, will it help them identify the next victim before the killer strikes again? And will Oliver ever reveal his secret passion for Mallard's assistant, the forbidding Detective Sergeant Effie Strongitharm?And what does any of this... He will take seventeen to the match - how many will he bring back? In Cibola football is a matter of life and death. Sir Tristram must reunite his Blood City teammates - Knights, Pirates and Westerners - to win the prestigious Seskie tournament against their oldest rivals. Behind the match is a bigger power play, a king's mission to bring down his greatest rival by persuasion, trickery or force. Needing a squad of soldiers as well as footballers, Sir Tristram must also find a place on tour and in his heart for the teenage child he has not addressed by name since infancy... When children's book author Oliver Swithin discovers a friend's body in Trafalgar Square's fountain, he is convinced that it is murder. The police don't agree but after more bodies show up in various locations around London, the police decide they're looking for a serial killer. Oliver races to find the killer before they strike again A British comic mystery featuring children's book author Oliver Swithin as he investigates a series of murders in London. All the victims were members of a jury which sent a man to prison