The Herring in the Library [Kindle Edition]

'The third book in this delightful series...is very much set in 'Golden Age' territory...Written with relish and a light heart, The Herring in the Library plays with the conventions of the traditional crime story. No gore and nothing to frighten the horses - but plenty of nifty plot-twists, jokes all the way, and a great deal of fun.' --The Guardian, Laura Wilson

'A rib-tickling take on Christie's classic country house murders. Funny, but cleverly intriguing with it. The series is fast achieving cult status... Snap up Ten Little Herrings too...'
--Peterborough Evening Telegraph, 6th August

'The latest in a tremendously funny series which has fun with- rather than making fun of - the classic British whodunnit...There are plenty of in-jokes aimed a fans of classic crime, and indeed at contemporary crime writers...' --Morning Star, Mat Coward

'Pastiches and parodies of the golden age of whodunits are hardly scarce, but few succeed in getting it right. Agatha Christie and her ilk seem to be easy targets, but too much mickey-taking ceases to be fun. More importantly, affectionate satire on its own is not enough: plot and characters must work too. LC Tyler's `Herring' series of which The Herring in the Library is the third, meets all the challenges with panache...A joy to read.' --The Times

When literary agent Elsie Thirkettle is invited to accompany tall but obscure crime-writer Ethelred Tressider to dinner at Muntham Court, she is looking forward to sneering at his posh friends. What she is not expecting is that, half way through the evening, her host will be found strangled in his locked study. Since there is no way that a murderer could have escaped, the police conclude that Sir Robert Muntham has killed himself. A distraught Lady Muntham, however, asks Ethelred to conduct his own investigation. Ethelred (ably hindered by Elsie) sets out to resolve a classic ‘locked room’ mystery; but is any one of the assorted guests and witnesses actually telling the truth? And can Ethelred’s account be trusted? In the process, we meet one of Ethelred’s own creations, the fourteenth-century detective Master Thomas, who is helped in his investigations of a mediaeval crime at Muntham Court by a small and rather pushy Abbess with a taste for honey cakes . . . Is it possible that Master Thomas can shed some light on the twenty-first century case, and on Ethelred’s own motives for investigating Sir Robert’s death? The Herring in the Library is another ingenious outing for crime fiction’s most mismatched double-act. ‘Tyler juggles characters, story, wit and clever one-liners with perfect balance’ THE TIMES

When literary agent Elsie Thirkettle is invited to accompany tall but obscure crime-writer Ethelred Tressider to dinner at Muntham Court, she is looking forward to sneering at his posh friends. What she is not expecting is that, half way through the evening, her host will be found strangled in his locked study. Since there is no way that a murderer could have escaped, the police conclude that Sir Robert Muntham has killed himself. A distraught Lady Muntham, however, asks Ethelred to conduct his own investigation. Ethelred (ably hindered by Elsie) sets out to resolve a classic ‘locked room’ mystery; but is any one of the assorted guests and witnesses actually telling the truth? And can Ethelred’s account be trusted? In the process, we meet one of Ethelred’s own creations, the fourteenth-century detective Master Thomas, who is helped in his investigations of a mediaeval crime at Muntham Court by a small and rather pushy Abbess with a taste for honey cakes . . . Is it possible that Master Thomas can shed some light on the twenty-first century case, and on Ethelred’s own motives for investigating Sir Robert’s death? The Herring in the Library is another ingenious outing for crime fiction’s most mismatched double-act. ‘Tyler juggles characters, story, wit and clever one-liners with perfect balance’ THE TIMES

L. C. Tyler was born in Essex and educated in Southend and at OxfordUniversity. He has worked in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sudan, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. He currently lives in Islington with his wife, children and border terrier