Tea On Sunday — Lettice Cooper

Alberta Mansbridge sets the table with teacups, mulling over the guests who will be arriving within the hour: her accountant and the ex-jailbird Barry; her nephew and his ghastly new wife; the Italian playboy, the family doctor, the manager of her father’s company and dear old Myra, with whom she had so recently fallen out. . . Alberta returns upstairs to get herself ready. Yet the guests' knocking goes unanswered, and they soon discover that their host has been murdered - worse still, that the killer must be among them, let in early. Inspector Corby is faced with eight suspects whose alibis and motives are steeped in mystery, and the truth is trickling away down cold London streets and through the Yorkshire roots of Alberta's past. First published in 1973 but written in the vintage mystery mode, Lettice Cooper delivers an authentic detective story with well-brewed psychological depth.