Marian Babson

It was with great delight that I finally finished off the books by authors whose names start with A and realized that the first of the B authors was Marian Babson.  It's been years since I've read any of the five titles of hers in my library, but that's mainly because they were all on the top shelf and it seemed like too much work to climb up and retrieve them.  My loss, I know, as I discovered when I started the first one, A Fool For Murder, couldn't stop reading it and finished it in one night. 

Some of her books are stand-alones, not part of a series of continuing characters.  I realized I had read the first three books out of the order of publication, but since they're not part of a series, that really doesn't matter.  

In A Fool For Murder, retired economics professor Wilmer Creighleigh writes a popular economics book, A Fool And His Money, that hits best-seller lists in both the UK and USA.  As his assorted relatives and friends gather to celebrate his triumphal return from an international book tour, murder strikes.  Grade:  A.  

Caterer Jean Ainsley, her brother Nick and his wife Mona have started taking culinary students as apprentices to supplement their executive boardroom catering business.  Their worst fear is that someone will contract food poisoning with their sandwiches and canapés as literal Death Warmed Up.  Grade:  A.

The staff of a struggling British newspaper is dying of "accidents" as the deputy managing editor tries to keep the newspaper afloat while he deals with the suspicion that he has sent these reporters to their deaths because someone is Dangerous to Know.  Grade:  A.

Reel Murder introduces aging actresses Evangeline Sinclair and Trixie Dolan and their assorted friends and frenemies.  Someone seems to be recreating scenes from Evangeline's old movies with murderous results.  Grade:  B.  

In The Cat Who Wasn't a Dog, Trixie rescues Cho Cho San, a rare Japanese Bobtail cat, from death in a taxidermist's shop only to find herself, Cho Cho, Evangeline and Dame Cecile Savoy, another aging stalwart of the British stage and screen, enmeshed in intrigue and murder.  Grade:  A.