Böcker av Joan Cockin

They were eight candidates who arrived in 'Humpstead Manor' - otherwise known as 'the Hump' - all of whom were part of an elite interview process for a major job in Africa. But even before the examinations began, one of the assembled seemed to be being singled out for something rather more a great job. Murder. Inspector Cam finds that what he thought was a relaxed trip observing how the process worked, finds he is needed to do a lot more than observe Deadly Earnest, published in 1952 was the third and final novel that came from the Joan Cockin stable. It s a strong candidate to be her best.

Little Biggling: a village that had been taken over by The Ministry of Scientific Research during the Second World War ... and after the War the Ministry had stayed on, much to the annoyance of several of the residents. However, being annoyed was one thing, being murdered quite another. It seemed that one of members of the Civil Service billeted in the village had been a little too curious about everybody and everything in Little Biggling, and there was a terrible price to pay. Inspector Cam found that he wasn't getting much help in finding the person who had most to hide... First published in 1949 this was the first of three detective thrillers penned by Joan Cockin, otherwise Edith Joan Burbidge Macintosh, PhD, CBE. Brought up in America, educated at Oxford, she was a British diplomat and part of the UK delegation at the first NATO and Council of Europe conferences; married in India - her career cut short, as was the rule for women, by marriage there. Then, she had a second career as a consumer champion, cofounding the National and the Scottish Consumer Councils, acting as Legal Ombudsman for Scotland, and founding the Insurance Ombudsman Bureau, while serving on a Royal Commission.

The lost art of brass rubbing, crooked antiques dealers, and smuggling all figure in this tale of an unidentified man found naked and ritually murdered on the altar in a Cornish church. Inspector Cam, on vacation with his family, is asked to help out the local police in this superbly plotted and literary mystery novel. Joan Cockin has created a perfect microcosm of the Cornish village in Villainy at Vespers (1949) and delights in populating the town of Trevelley with all manner of eccentric locals and oddball tourists. Leading the investigation is a nearly incompetent and irascible local policeman named Honeywether who enlists the help of Cam, though it is mostly the promise of free beer that decides the vacationing copper to join the investigation. Together Cam and Honeywether uncover the identity of the naked corpse and unravel a web of deceit and cover-ups.