Death Goes to Italy

by Mabel Esther Allan

When David and Elinor Gray and their 18-year old niece, Rose, join a Blue Dragon Tour to Italy, they were looking forward to spring sunshine on the Mediterranean coast and had no premonition that the holiday would bring suspicion, fear and the horror of murder. Originally written in the late 1950s, this is the first publication of Death Goes to Italy.

220 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2011

About the author

A prolific British children's author, who also wrote under the pen-names Jean Estoril, Priscilla Hagon, Anne Pilgrim, and Kathleen M. Pearcey, Mabel Esther Allan is particularly known for her school and ballet stories.

Born in 1915 at Wallasey on the Wirral Peninsula, Allan knew from an early age that she wanted to be an author, and published her first short stories in the 1930s. Her writing career was interrupted by World War II, during which time she served in the Women's Land Army and taught school in Liverpool, but the 1948 publication of The Glen Castle Mystery saw it begin to take off in earnest. Influenced by Scottish educator A.S. Neill, Allan held progressive views about education, views that often found their way into her books, particularly her school stories. She was interested in folk dance and ballet - another common subject in her work - and was a frequent traveler. She died in 1998.