Swedish author Katarina Bivald has been awarded the Lilian Jackson Braun Memorial Award by the Mystery Writers of America for her novel The Murders in Great Diddling. The book marks the start of her cozy mystery series about Berit Gardner.
Originally published by Forum in Sweden and the English edition is published by Poisoned Pen Press/Sourcebooks.
“It’s a great joy and an incredible honor to receive this award from the Mystery Writers of America, among such well-known writers and nominees,” says Bivald. “Berit Gardner holds a special place in my heart, with her prickliness, her slightly old-fashioned sense of right and wrong, and her habit of always saying what she thinks. I’m so happy that she – and the other odd people in Great Diddling – have now taken the U.S. by storm!”
BERIT HAS TRAVELLED to France to teach at a writer’s retreat. The class is abruptly cancelled when its star, a bestselling author, is murdered right in front of Berit’s eyes.
DETECTIVE INSPECTOR ROCHE at the Lyon police department has her hands full with twenty wannabe authors who all have some kind of motive for the murder. Not only are they dangerously used to making things up but all of them are using the police investigation as an opportunity to do real life research. Out of pure desperation, inspector Roche turns to Berit Gardner for help.
WHEN A SECOND murder is committed things take a turn for the worse. Luckily, reinforcements, in the guise of DI Ian Ahmed who is on holiday nearby, arrives in the nick of time. Will they be able to solve the daunting murder spree or will Berit’s life once again hang in the balance?
KATARINA BIVALD’S LOVABLE leading lady is back in this second stand alone cosy crime novel starring author Berit Gardner who can’t help solving murders when she should be writing a new bestseller.
