Bone Idle

Superintendent Bone #6

by Susannah Stacey

Their stately houses tour savagely interrupted by the murders of their host and an unpopular guest, Bone and his new wife, Grizel, launch an unofficial investigation that gives way to the victim's explosive will. Reprint.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Crime, Cozy, Mystery Thriller

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

AKA Elizabeth Eyre, Susannah Stacey is the pseudonym of the couple of writers Jill Staynes [1927-] and Margaret Storey [1926-].
Jill Staynes writes her own novels as well as writing under the name of Elizabeth Eyre and Susannah Stacey with Margaret Storey. They were pupils at the same school where they invented bizarre characters and exchanged serial episodes about them. Their first book together. at the age of fifteen, was called 'Bungho, or why we went to Aleppo'. It was not offered for publication. They have both written stories for children, and together created the highly praised Superintendent Bone modern detective novels as well as this series of Italian Renaissance whodunnits.

Reviews

[Catherine]

This is Superintendent Bone's Honeymoon, which ends up being a busman's holiday. Excellent! And even though I'd read it before, I couldn't remember who'd 'dun it', and couldn't work it out.

Nov 25 - not my favourite Bone book. Creepy and nasty.

[Harry Lane]

Delightful British mystery with manners.

[Queue]

I adore this series. Not cozy, but not coldly threatening - more Midsomer Murders than Lucifer, should that comparison scan for you. Comfort reread, needed on chilly sick days.

[Ava Othmer]

Quite a boring book with the weirdest names. Who names a woman Grizel? And why have inspector Prior, such a weird last name. Overall, it was an interesting premise, but the book was too long to keep my attention. Half the book could be cut out in the story would remain the same.

[Jan]

A bit of a slow start but picked after the murders happened.

It felt very old fashioned but was enjoyable enough.

[Terri]

Read the complete series, and then discovered I had skipped over this one. Not the best, but a decent read.

[Josephine]

Amusing/diverting peek into the lives and houses of the nobility in England; the mystery's fluff but engaging enough that I've read the book a couple of times. Though it's the sixth in the series, readers can pick this one up and follow the plot easily enough.