Trotter's bottom

The third Ophelia book, featuring all the usual elements: her incompetent but highly cuddly husband Malachi, conspiratorial children, potty peasants and aristocrats and lawyers ranging from the doo-lally to the downright diabolical.  The difference this time is that it's also a 'real' crime novel, i.e. one with a murder, solved (sort of) by the heroine.  Oh, and there are lots of pigs and quite a bit of chess.

an extract from the book

'Blackburne was a Man.'

'I'm sure he was.' ...

... 'A real Man,' repeated Mortimer, striding up and down on his imitation tiger-skin rug.  'Drank like a man, fought like a man, played chess like a man.  No wonder the nebbichs couldn't stand him.  Take that 'eighty-nine game against Amos Burn.  What a queen sacrifice, eh?  Of course, Burn didn't have the guts to take it.  Mind you, they're just as bad now, if not worse.  These quickplay finish rules, for example.  The way I see it is, if a man's not got the stamina to spend all night across the chess board, he's no business calling himself a chess player at all.  Win on time?  Win by outright thievery if you ask me.'

and a slightly bemused review from a German website

Ophelia O. and the Mortgage Bandits

Ophelia O. and the Antenatal Mysteries

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