First Class Murder Read online

  And finally, thank you to you – to each of the booksellers and bloggers and readers who have supported this series in the most incredible way. Thank you for every recommendation, every reader email, every tweet, every review, every event and every bookshop display. In particular I would like to mention Waterstones, who have simply gone above and beyond in their incredible enthusiasm about the books – but I have been completely astonished by the way every one of you has personally supported my heroines and their stories. Meeting and speaking to my readers is one of the most special things about being an author – if I could, I would give each one of you your own Detective Society badge.

  Long may the adventures continue.

  Robin Stevens

  March 2015

  About the Author

  Robin Stevens was born in California and grew up in an Oxford college, across the road from the house where Alice in Wonderland lived. She has been making up stories all her life.

  When she was twelve, her father handed her a copy of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and she realised that she wanted to be either Hercule Poirot or Agatha Christie when she grew up. When it occurred to her that she was never going to be able to grow her own spectacular walrus moustache, she decided that Agatha Christie was the more achievable option.

  She spent her teenage years at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, reading a lot of murder mysteries and hoping that she’d get the chance to do some detecting herself (she didn’t). She then went to university, where she studied crime fiction, and now she works at a children’s publisher, which is pretty much the best day job she can imagine.

  Robin now lives near Cambridge with her pet bearded dragon, Watson.

  Also by Robin Stevens:

  FIRST CLASS MURDER: A MURDER MOST UNLADYLIKE MYSTERY

  AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 448 19317 2

  Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,

  an imprint of Random House Children’s Publishers UK

  A Penguin Random House Company

  This ebook edition published 2015

  Text copyright © Robin Stevens, 2015

  Cover, map and illustrations copyright © Nina Tara, 2015

  First Published in Great Britain by Corgi, 2015

  The right of Robin Stevens to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.