Ann Purser

Mother, cleaning lady, and secret sleuth Lois Meade investigates a murder that Detective Cowgill believes is connected to a suspicious fire and a heated dispute over the local village hall.

Lois Meade has worked through all the days of the week, turning up clues and scrubbing up messes and murderers in the village of Long Farnden. A series of robberies have begun to plague Long Farnden, and Lois's own daughter, Josie, is shaken when a thief makes off with a hundred pounds from the till in her grocery shop. But before her policeman fiancé can crack the case, someone cracks Lois's husband on the head when he interrupts a burglary in...

"Lois Meade has done enough buffing and polishing over the years with her cleaning business, New Brooms, to know that all that glitters is not gold. So when a bag of costume jewellery is the main clue in a murder, she has a strong suspicion that appearances may be deceiving ... After a woman is discovered in the Mill House Hotel, strangled with a silver necklace beside a bag filled with faux silver, gold and pearls, costume jewelry dealer Michael...

A wedding is always a happy occasion, even if Lois Meade must remind herself she isn't losing a daughter, but gaining a policeman. Luckily, her new son-in-law is in the Tresham force, and is the nephew of her friend and collaborator Inspector Cowgill. So, Lois looks forward to having another link to the law at her disposal. But sleuthing suddenly seems a little too close to home when her youngest son invites a mysterious young woman, Akiko, as a...

After local spinster Gloria Hathaway is murdered, housekeeper Lois Meade is asked by the police to look for clues in the homes of her clients and finds that her own family may be in danger.