The Sibyl in Her Grave

Hailed by critics as a master of "the most elegant and literate comedy of manners in the mystery field today," Sarah Caudwell returns to London with her redoubtable team of young barristers--Cantrip, Selena, Ragwort, and Julia--in a mystery that crackles with her uniquely bewitching blend of wit and malice. The Sibyl in Her Grave.

Julia Larwood's aunt Regina needs help. It seems that she and two friends pooled their modest resources and, on the advice of another friend, invested in equities. A short-term investment in small companies. Big risk. Big return. Now the tax man demands his due. Aunt Regina is flummoxed. They've already spent the money. How can they dig themselves out of the tax hole? But the real question is how on earth did three amateurs make a thousand-percent profit in record time, triggering a capital gains tax twice the amount of their original investment? Even more to the point: Can the sin of capital gains trigger corporeal loss?

That's one for the sibyl, psychic counselor Isabella del Comino, who has offended Aunt Regina and her friends by moving into the local rectory, plowing under a cherished garden, and establishing an aviary of ravens. When Isabella is found dead, all clues seem to lead to death by fiscal misadventure. Was the sibyl compromising someone's bottom line? Or was it one for the birds?

Julia calls in old friend and Oxford fellow, Professor Hilary Tamar, to follow a money trail that connects Aunt Regina and her friends to what appears to be capital fraud--and capital crime. The two women couldn't have a better champion than the erudite Hilary, as once again Sarah Caudwell sweeps us into the scene of the crime, leaving us to ponder the greatest mystery of all. Hilary, him--or her--self.

Aunt Regina and her friends seem to be connected to capital fraud--and capital crime. And when someone connected with Aunt Regina's equity investments turns up dead, things look even more dire. But Regina couldn't have a better champion than the erudite supersleuth Professor Hilary Tamar, who is determined to solve this murderous muddle before someone else is killed.

Sarah Caudwell is also the author of Thus Was Adonis Murdered, The Shortest Way to Hades, and The Sirens Sang of Murder. She studied law at St. Anne's College, Oxford, was called to the Chancery Bar, and practiced as a barrister for several years in Lincoln's Inn. She then became a member of the legal section of a major London bank, where she found herself specializing in international tax planning. Sarah Caudwell died in January 2000.