East Devon Cosy Mysteries
Treasure the walks. Uncover the clues. Solve the mystery.
Welcome to a corner of England where the sea is blue, the cream teas are generous, the villages are picturesque… and somebody has usually been murdered.
Join Frank and Ella Raleigh, Alice Aylesbeare and a growing collection of reluctant detectives, eccentric suspects and occasionally helpful policemen in a series of traditional British cosy mysteries set among the towns, villages and coast of East Devon.
Gentle humour. Proper clues. Beautiful places. And murders that really ought to stop happening.
Welcome to East Devon
Frank and Ella Raleigh thought early retirement in East Devon would mean coastal walks, village halls, country pubs, cream teas and rather more time to themselves.
Then somebody wrote the wrong address on a parcel. Before long, there was a body upside down in a cider barrel.
Since then, retirement has become considerably more complicated.
The East Devon Cosy Mysteries are traditional, easy-to-read whodunits. They are set in towns and villages across one of the loveliest corners of South West England.
Along the way you’ll meet memorable characters, explore genuine locations and follow local walks. You’ll encounter mysteries ranging from impossible locked-room murders to treasure hunts, smuggling tunnels and grievances that have waited sixty years to be settled.
Fortunately, Frank and Ella have become rather good at this.
Book One. The beginning of Frank and Ella’s adventures.
New to East Devon?
Start with Cidered in Sidmouth
Frank and Ella Raleigh have retired. They have moved to East Devon. They enjoy going for walks before delivering a parcel. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a lot, as it happens.
Their first mystery begins in Sidmouth with an incorrectly addressed package, a cider farm and a body discovered upside down in a barrel.
It was not quite the retirement they had planned.
Explore the East Devon Mysteries
Six mysteries. Six very different investigations.
From cider barrels and impossible locked rooms to lotteries, sixties pop stars, old football pools and a goat with an unfortunate talent for discovering trouble.
Choose a mystery below, or begin at the beginning and follow Frank and Ella’s adventures in order.
BOOK ONE
Cidered in Sidmouth
A wrongly delivered parcel. A body in a cider barrel. Retirement begins badly.
Frank and Ella Raleigh discover that solving murder can be far more absorbing than joining the local history society.
BOOK TWO
The Dudleys of Budleigh
A death threat. A locked police cell. An impossible murder.
In Budleigh Salterton, Anthony Buckerell has made enemies. Unfortunately, four of the most obvious ones are called Dudley.
BOOK THREE
The Ottery Lottery
Win a company. Solve the clues. Catch a murderer.
When Ella Raleigh buys a lottery ticket, she isn’t expecting to win a company or the treasure hunt that comes with it.
BOOK FOUR
Corn on the Cobb
A sixties star. Six wives. One anniversary weekend that goes very badly wrong.
Frank and Ella are hoping for a peaceful break at a country house hotel.
Cornelius Spooner and his complicated romantic history have other ideas.
BOOK FIVE
Return to Sidmouth
Four winners. One football pools fortune. A grievance that refuses to stay in 1963.
Frank and Ella return to Sidmouth for a mystery stretching from the Swinging Sixties to the present day.
Some people have very long memories.
Branscombe Butter
One runaway goat. One hidden tunnel. One village with rather too much to hide.
Goethe the goat has escaped.
Again.
This time he discovers something beneath Branscombe that would have been much better left alone.
My latest book is called “A Trio of Trouble“
Three Murders. Three Mysteries.One Alice Aylesbeare.
A village cricket tea.
A harbour lantern festival.
A charity cycling rally.
Three perfectly respectable East Devon events.
Three opportunities for murder.
At the centre of them all is Alice Marigold Aylesbeare, whose flowered hats, grandmotherly appearance and large brown corduroy handbag conceal a formidable eye for detail.
Alongside Frank and Ella Raleigh, Detective Sergeant Elsie Knowle and PC Alf Hydon, Alice discovers that solving a murder often depends not on finding something extraordinary, but on noticing the ordinary thing that doesn’t quite fit.
Murder at the Village Cricket Tea
A scorer dies beside his scorebook during an afternoon on the village green.
The Secret of the Harbour Lantern
The lights go out during a lantern festival. When they return, somebody is dead.
The Broken Bicycle Bell
A charity cycling rally ends in tragedy. Alice isn’t convinced it was an accident.
Frank & Ella Raleigh
Retirement was supposed to be quieter than this.
Frank likes clues, theories, lists and the occasional whiteboard.
Ella is rather better at noticing people.
Together they have acquired an unfortunate habit of being present whenever perfectly respectable East Devon residents decide to murder one another.
Alice Aylesbeare
Flowered hat. Corduroy handbag. Formidable filing system.
Before Alice became involved in murder investigations, she was Anthony Buckerell’s secretary.
She is organised, inquisitive, fond of Agatha Christie and perhaps just a little too delighted when a mystery presents itself.
Elsie Knowle & Alf Hydon
The professionals. Mostly.
Detective Sergeant Elsie Knowle has learned that when Frank, Ella or Alice say something doesn’t look quite right, it is usually worth listening.
PC Alf Hydon brings common sense, loyalty and an occasionally unique interpretation of police procedure.
Between them, East Devon remains relatively safe. Relatively.
There Is More to Explore
The murders are fictional.
Many of the places aren’t.
Walk East Devon
The South West Coast Path, riverside rambles, village lanes and countryside walks all play a part in the series.
The books were written by someone who genuinely enjoys putting one foot in front of the other.
Having worked on the website for the South West Coast Path team, I know a good number of the local walks. Try this one, for example:
The Otter Valley Wildlife Walkor this group of East Devon and Dorset walks designed for families:
East Devon and Dorset walksWhy East Devon?
Everyone seemed to be murdering people in the Cotswolds.
So I looked closer to home.
East Devon has everything a cosy mystery writer could want: seaside towns, quiet villages, ancient churches, country pubs, winding lanes, dramatic cliffs and hidden valleys.
There are enough footpaths to allow a murderer, victim and amateur detective to take entirely different routes to the same place.
It is beautiful.
It is peaceful.
And in my books, at least, its murder rate is becoming mildly concerning.
The settings may be real, but no conclusions should be drawn about the residents.
Fancy Committing a Murder of Your Own?
Fictionally, obviously.
WannaPlot is my free cosy mystery plot generator.
Give it a click and it will create the bones of a mystery for you: setting, victim, murderer, method, clues and red herrings.
Some plots are traditional.
Some are quirky.
Some should probably never be allowed anywhere near a respectable village fête.
What you do with them afterwards is entirely up to you.
Something Completely Different…
Sidmouth Swifts’ Stupendous Season
No murder.
No amateur detective.
Not even a suspiciously positioned body.
Instead, travel back to the world of lower-league English football, muddy pitches, crowded terraces, rattling trains and one tiny Devon football club embarking on an extraordinary FA Cup adventure.
Told through the eyes of fifteen-year-old Paul Knowles, Sidmouth Swifts’ Stupendous Season is a nostalgic story about football, community, hope and the season nobody in Sidmouth ever forgot.
A standalone P. A. Nash novel.
BUY SIDMOUTH SWIFTS STUPENDOUS SEASON READ HARRY BULVERTON’S REPORTS
Keep in Touch
Questions, comments or evidence concerning an unexplained East Devon murder?
Email P. A. Nash: info@eastdevoncosymysteries.com
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