The Tale of Cuckoo Brow Wood

Table of Contents

 

 

 
The TaLe of HoLLy How

 
“Vivid descriptions . . . charming.”
—Publishers Weekly

 
“A most ingenious blend of fact and fiction.”

—Judy Taylor Hough, author o
f Beatrix Potter: Artist, Storyteller and Countrywoman

 
“[An] adorable amateur sleuth tale.”
—The Best Reviews

 
“Hard to resist, especially on a sleepy, sunny afternoon.”

 
 
The TaLe of Hill Top Farm

 
“A perfectly charming cozy, as full of English country loam, leaf, and lamb as could be desired . . . as full of pinched schoolmistresses, vicar’s widows, and good-hearted volunteers as any Barbara Pym novel.”
—Booklist

 
“There is a historical essence to the tale . . . Fans feel they are in a quaint English village, circa 1905 . . . Fabulous.”

 
“Beatrix Potter fans will welcome the talented Susan Wittig Albert . . . Similar to [the works] of Rita Mae Brown.”

 
“Endearing . . . The English country village resonates with charm and humor, and sleuth Beatrix positively shines.”

“Albert’s characters are as real and as quirky as your next-door neighbor.”
—The Raleigh News & Observer

 
“[Albert] improves with each successive book . . . Artful.”

 
“Albert’s dialogue and characterizations put her in a class with lady sleuths V. I. Warshawski and Stephanie Plum.”

 
“The denizens of Pecan Springs are sympathetic and insightful, grand livers with flinty wit—a combination of the residents of Lake Wobegon and the Texas villages in Larry McMurtry’s novels. Albert’s writing and outlook suggest Molly Ivins, while China’s independence and sunbelt sleuthing will appeal to readers of Earlene Fowler’s Benni Harper series and Allana Martin’s Texana Jones novels.”

 
“A marvelous addition to the ranks of amateur detectives.”

—Linda Grant, author of
When I Lived in Modern Times

THYME OF DEATH
WITCHES’ BANE
HANGMAN’S ROOT
ROSEMARY REMEMBERED
RUEFUL DEATH
LOVE LIES BLEEDING
CHILE DEATH
LAVENDER LIES

MISTLETOE MAN
BLOODROOT
INDIGO DYING
AN UNTHYMELY DEATH
A DILLY OF A DEATH
DEAD MAN’S BONES
BLEEDING HEARTS
CHINA BAYLES’ BOOK OF DAYS

 
With her husband, Bill Albert,
writing as Robin Paige

 
DEATH AT BISHOP’S KEEP
DEATH AT GALLOWS GREEN
DEATH AT DAISY’S FOLLY
DEATH AT DEVIL’S BRIDGE
DEATH AT ROTTINGDEAN
DEATH AT WHITECHAPEL

DEATH AT EPSOM DOWNS
DEATH AT DARTMOOR
DEATH AT GLAMIS CASTLE
DEATH IN HYDE PARK
DEATH AT BLENHEIM PALACE
DEATH ON THE LIZARD

THE TALE OF HILL TOP FARM
THE TALE OF HOLLY HOW
THE TALE OF CUCKOO BROW WOOD

 
Nonfiction books
by Susan Wittig Albert

 
WRITING FROM LIFE
WORK OF HER OWN

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
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(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
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(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196,
South Africa

 
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

 
PUBLISHER’S NOTE: The recipes in this book are to be followed exactly as written. The publisher is not responsible for your specific health or allergy needs that may require medical supervision. The publisher is not responsible for any averse reactions to the recipes contained in this book.

 
Frederick Warne & Co Ltd. is the sole and exclusive owner of the entire rights titles and interest in and to the copyrights and trade marks of the works of Beatrix Potter, including all names and characters featured therein. No reproduction of these copyrights and trade marks may be made without the prior written consent of Frederick Warne & Co Ltd.

 
THE TALE OF CUCKOO BROW WOOD

 
A Berkley Prime Crime Book / published by arrangement with the author

 
Copyright © 2007 by Susan Wittig Albert.

 
All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

eISBN: 9781101378274

 
BERKLEY ® PRIME CRIME
Berkley Prime Crime Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
The name BERKLEY PRIME CRIME and the BERKLEY PRIME CRIME design
are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

 

 
Can it be—it must be—that you are that embodiment of the incorporeal, that elusive yet ineluctable being to whom through the generations novelists have so unavailingly made invocation; in short, the
Gentle Reader?

HENRY JAMES

Acknowledgments

My grateful thanks go to Dr. Linda Lear, Senior Research Scholar in History at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and Research Professor of Environmental History at George Washington University, who has helped me resolve several problems of fact and emphasis and has been a generous and gracious friend since I began this project. Those who admire the work of Beatrix Potter are eagerly awaiting Dr. Lear’s forthcoming biography, to appear in 2007:
Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature
.

Special appreciation also goes to my editor, Natalee Rosenstein, who has supported my work for over a decade, and to my husband, Bill Albert, who has cheerfully driven all over the Lake District—on the wrong side of very narrow English roads, in an English car with the steering and gearshift on the wrong side, in the pouring English rain. Many thanks, Natalee and Bill. If it weren’t for you, these Potter books would never have been written.

 
Susan Wittig Albert

EDITH NESBIT
The Enchanted Castle, 1907

Cast of Characters
(* indicates an actual person or creature)

Beatrix Potter,
* renowned children’s author and illustrator, divides her time between her farm at Hill Top, in the Lake District village of Near Sawrey, and her parents’ home in London.