IT CAN'T BE MY GRAVE
By
US professor Neil Kelly (Ceremony of Innocence) is in England again, partly to be lionized (mildly) by his longtime publisher--on the occasion of his new book, The Lives of John Donne. But the conglomerate-owner of his publisher happens to be tycoon Sir Gordon Fairly--who's obsessed with his theory that a Fairly ancestor wrote Arden of Faversham, that anonymously authored classic from 1592 (often credited to Shakespeare). So Neil, full of 16th-century expertise, is soon deeply involved in theatrical doings--because Sir Gordon wants to mount a full-scale production using red-hot director Charles Leonard and Neil's acting friends Hugh James and wife Sheila Edwards. And then Neil is in the midst of murder again: three letter bombs are delivered to his Lordship's antique-furnished Daimler, with fatal results. Among the suspects? Sir Gordon's widow Sylvia and venomous daughter Ashley. But they're only the beginning--as Neil joins beguiling C.I.D. Inspector Thomas Bowie in unfolding the dozen bizarre relationships that led to Gordon's murder. Stuffed with plot twists and gamy characters, bright with Dean's customary wit and playful intellect: scintillating mystery-comedy from the genre's most recent rising star.