‘The Murder Planner’ by L.C. Tyler

Published by Allison & Busby,
22 October 2026.
ISBN: 978-0-74903440-5 (HB)

Sable Knight (known to her family as Eileen) is the owner and Commissioning Editor at Day & Knight, a London publishing house which specialises in crime fiction. However, this apparently innocuous description does not tell all. Her former business partner, Joe, started a sideline in commissioning struggling writers to plot perfect murders ostensibly for other authors who needed help. This turned out to be more lucrative than most publishing deals. Joe has since decamped to Spain apparently to run a bar, but in truth he needed to get away. We are told that he is now dead. Sable has continued with these ‘special editorial services. 

Problems start for Sable when a lady called Mrs Smith asks her to produce a plan for the murder of a philandering husband who is the chairman of a bank (fictional, of course). Sable engages Inderjit Singh to investigate possibilities. Singh turns out to be Derek Thomas, an unpublishable author who has a keen interest in his own health. After much research on location, Derek produces three scenarios which are sent to Mrs Smith. Shortly afterwards Lord Flowerdew, who happens to be the philandering chairman of a bank, meets his maker in one of the scenarios proposed by Derek. Fact definitely meets fiction.

Matters hot up. Sable starts to receive blackmail notes. The first is from someone called Pete McGill with whom she soon becomes friendly. It is not clear who has sent the others. Sable then finds that her brother Keith, a detective superintendent, has been put in charge of the investigation. He is convinced it is murder and thinks he knows the perpetrator but cannot prove anything. The rest of his team seem content to call it an accident. It gets even worse for Sable when her brother has his suspicions that someone has provided the template for the murder. It doesn’t help that Mrs Smith has gone off piste and not followed the (fictional, of course) post-murder plan. 

This is a highly entertaining, amusing and well-plotted novel (you won’t be surprised to know that there is an interesting twist or two at the end). Every time Sable thinks she may be getting off the hook, something happens to prolong her troubles. It is impossible to do justice to the wealth of characters and themes in a review, but here are a few of them. Sable’s mother is a highlight. She supports Labour but reads the ‘Daily Mail’; she knew the Kray twins and had them round for tea once (‘Lovely lads they were. So polite to your great gran.’). She spends most of her time watching television and there are many references to contemporary presenters and shows such as Richard Osman in ‘Pointless’ and Sue Barker in ‘A Question of Sport’. Alexander Armstrong is also mentioned. She is a sharp old girl as is proved later in the novel (‘You could cut yourself on her if you’re not careful’ Sable says to her brother). Writers such as WB Yeats get a mention, and there are plenty of deserved digs at crime fiction and its protagonists. Events such as ‘CrimeFest’ are cited. Tyler has a cynical turn of phrase. When Mrs Smith suggests that Sable’s advice is expensive, the latter’s response is ‘An MA in creative writing would cost more and be less effective.’ At one point Sable says ‘There’s nothing more irritating than an illiterate blackmailer.’ Shortly afterwards McGill claims to be ‘more of a post-modern blackmailer,’ whatever that is. 

Enough. I could go on but I think you’ll have got the message by now and I don’t want to say more about the plot. If you like your fiction to be fun, literate and enjoyable, this is the book for you. Highly recommended.
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Reviewer: David Whittle 

L. C. Tyler was born in Southend, Essex, and educated at Southend High School for Boys, Jesus College Oxford and City University London. After university he joined the Civil Service and worked at the Department of the Environment in London and Hong Kong. He then moved to the British Council, where his postings included Malaysia, Thailand, Sudan and Denmark. Since returning to the UK, he has lived in Sussex and London and was Chief Executive of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health for eleven years. He is now a full-time writer. His first novel, The Herring Seller's Apprentice, was published by Macmillan in 2007, followed by nine further books in the series featuring Ethelred Tressider and his agent Elsie Thirkettle. The first book in his historical series, A Cruel Necessity, was published by Constable and Robinson in November 2014. Since then, he has published nine further books in this series. His latest book a standalone is The Murder Planner, published 22 October 2026. 

http://www.lctyler.com/

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then.