The Woodstock Mysteries: Books 1 - 3
(2026)(A book in the Woodstock Mystery series)
An omnibus of novels by A G Barnett
Two women. One market town. Three bodies.
Woodstock, 1950. A quiet Oxfordshire town in the shadow of Blenheim Palace, where the police close cases early and the truth gets talked about in kitchens.
Hester Croft has a sharp mind, a sharper tongue, and a darkness she has spent a lifetime outrunning. Gertie Bundle keeps The Old Pyed Bull, and half the town's secrets. Between them they have the makings of an investigative team the Oxfordshire police do not require, and are about to get anyway.
DING DONG BELL
A body is pulled from Fair Rosamund's Well in the grounds of Blenheim Palace. The police call it an accident. Hester knew Jean Penrose. She knew what Jean did to people. And she does not believe Jean drowned.
ORANGES AND LEMONS
The tower captain of St Mary Magdalene's is found dead beneath the bells after Tuesday practice. A rope is wound round his leg, neat as a parcel. Ropes do not wind themselves that way. Someone in the ringing band is lying about the hour the bell rang.
LADYBIRD LADYBIRD
A glove workshop burns on the lane to Bladon. A young widow is dead inside, her two-year-old daughter found alive in the rubble. The fire did not kill her. And whoever lit it is not whoever did.
Three full-length 1950s murder mysteries. Sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued, and quietly merciless.
Start the series here.
Genre: Mystery
Woodstock, 1950. A quiet Oxfordshire town in the shadow of Blenheim Palace, where the police close cases early and the truth gets talked about in kitchens.
Hester Croft has a sharp mind, a sharper tongue, and a darkness she has spent a lifetime outrunning. Gertie Bundle keeps The Old Pyed Bull, and half the town's secrets. Between them they have the makings of an investigative team the Oxfordshire police do not require, and are about to get anyway.
DING DONG BELL
A body is pulled from Fair Rosamund's Well in the grounds of Blenheim Palace. The police call it an accident. Hester knew Jean Penrose. She knew what Jean did to people. And she does not believe Jean drowned.
ORANGES AND LEMONS
The tower captain of St Mary Magdalene's is found dead beneath the bells after Tuesday practice. A rope is wound round his leg, neat as a parcel. Ropes do not wind themselves that way. Someone in the ringing band is lying about the hour the bell rang.
LADYBIRD LADYBIRD
A glove workshop burns on the lane to Bladon. A young widow is dead inside, her two-year-old daughter found alive in the rubble. The fire did not kill her. And whoever lit it is not whoever did.
Three full-length 1950s murder mysteries. Sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued, and quietly merciless.
Start the series here.
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for A G Barnett's The Woodstock Mysteries: Books 1 - 3