‘No Cure For Death’ by Hazel Holt

Published by Allison & Busby,
21 August 2006.
ISBN: 978-0-749082345 (PB)

Sheila Mallory’s is at the Doctor’s surgery waiting to see old Doctor MacDonald about her ankle, when Dr Morrison is found dead in his office, and not from natural causes.  Doctor Morrison had only fairly recently joined the practice having previously been in practice in London.  Following some talk of a misdiagnosis of a local patient resulting in a death, the rumour mill in the village had gone into overdrive and Taviscombe was alive with speculation.

Although, not having had much to do with Doctor Morrison, Sheila Mallory’s impression of him had not been overly favourable and she like many of the village had found him to be cold and rather arrogant.  However, she is presented with a very different character when she is contacted by her old school friend Nora Burton, who lived next door to Dr Morrison and had been friends with him for a very long time.

The police have an immediate suspect in that the last person to see Dr Morrison alive was a local drug-addict Rhys Hampden, who was seen leaving the surgery in an agitated manner, but there are numerous entrances in the complex that houses the surgery, and anyone could have access to Dr Morrisons room.  Whilst the police pursue their enquiries along orthodox channels,  Sheila goes about her work with the ‘Friends of the Hospital’ and the various local charities she supports and picks up snips of gossip here and there which begin to build up and picture that presents Sheila with a dilemma. 

This is a marvellous entry into this excellent series. Recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie  Hayes  

Hazel Holt (1928-2015) was born in Birmingham. She attended King Edward V1 High School for Girls and went onto study at Newham college, Cambridge University. She went on to work at the International African Institute in London, where she became acquainted with the novelist Barbara Pym, whose biography she later wrote. Holt wrote her first novel in her sixties and was best known for her "Sheila Malory" series. Her son is the novelist Tom Holt.