Thus Was Adonis Murdered

288 pages | paperback |

The first in Sarah Caudwell’s beloved Hilary Tamar series

“A tour de force . . . A hilarious comedy of manners.”
—St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Reduced to near penury by the outrageous demands of the British income tax authorities, young barrister Julia Larwood (an accounting expert who has bungled her own tax issues) spends the last of her savings on an Art Lovers tour of Venice.

Poor, romantic Julia—how could she possibly guess that the ravishing fellow Art Lover for whom she falls hard is himself an employee of those very tax authorities? Or that he will be found murdered the morning after their glorious night of passion? Matters deteriorate further when the Venetian police find Julia’s heavily marked-up copy of the current Finance Act next to his beautiful corpse.

Fortunately, Julia’s fellow barristers back in the London chambers at the historic Lincoln’s Inn, and Oxford Don (and scholar of legal history) Hilary Tamar, offer support and inspiration as now murder suspect Julia navigates the Italian legal system.

Thus Was Adonis Murdered is published here in the first new edition in more than twenty years. Spiced with satire, seasoned with deadly and erudite wit, and boasting a surprisingly contemporary spirit, it shines with all the charm of the golden age of British crime fiction.

“An elaborately plotted, very English and charming story.” —Publishers Weekly