No more tears now; I will think about revenge…

The flamboyantly glamorous Joyce Brocklehurst is feeling decidedly fed up. Her sturdy, outdoorsy best friend Ginger Salt has organised a weekend break not in Paris or Rome, but Buxton, their local spa town. For her part Ginger is delighted that Dennis Matty, long-term friend and hotel owner, has given her the newly renovated Mary, Queen of Scots room on the top floor. But neither she nor Joyce expects to find the body of Mary herself lying dead on the bed, the bruises of strangulation around her neck. When Ginger recognises the victim as Caroline Clatworthy, a history expert who often led tours in the guise of the 16th-century queen, she and Joyce make a wager with Dennis: he will pay their bar bill if they solve the crime before local dignitaries are due to gather in the hotel in six days’ time. But their investigation soon leads them into the murky pasts of the people around them, throwing up more questions than answers. Who has been stealing from the hotel guests? What is bothering the handsome carpenter whose business is apparently booming? Why is a self-made millionaire who seems to have it all so prone to fits of uncontrollable rage? It appears everyone has a secret - including Ginger herself. Can the two friends - living proof that opposites attract - reveal the truth before Joyce’s taste for champagne leaves them with a bar bill far more painful than any punishment a pitiless murderer could deliver? Join Joyce and Ginger in the first of the Joyce and Ginger Mysteries series for a luxurious break, with laughs aplenty and mysteries to solve everywhere you turn.