Rebecca Tope is an English crime novelist and journalist. She is the author of three murder mystery series, featuring the fictional characters of Den Cooper, a Devon police detective; Drew Slocombe, a former nurse, now an undertaker; Thea Osborne, a house sitter in the Cotswolds; and Persimmon Brown, a florist in the Lake District. Tope is also ghost writer of the novels based on the ITV series Rosemary and Thyme."A choice of recent crime fiction", The Spectator 24 March 2001
Life and career
Rebecca Tope was born on 2 October 1948, in Worcestershire, and has lived in many parts of England since then. She has nearly 40 crime novels in print, published by Allison & Busby. Her two main series are set in the Cotswolds and the Lake District, both featuring amateur female detectives.
She lives on a smallholding in Herefordshire, but has had no livestock for some years. The acres have been returned to the wildlife, which includes a lot of brambles and thistles.
She founded a small press, Praxis Books, in 1992, which has concentrated almost exclusively on reissuing the works of Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924). She has also written and published a definitive biography of Baring-Gould.
Tope's hobbies mainly centre around wool, antique auctions and travel.
Bibliography
The Cotswold Mysteries A Cotswold Killing 23 May 2005, Allison & Busby A Cotswold Ordeal 31 October 2006, Allison & Busby Death in the Cotswolds 28 April 2008, Allison & Busby A Cotswold Mystery 28 August 2008, Allison & Busby Blood in the Cotswolds 7 September 2009, Allison & Busby Slaughter in the Cotswolds 22 February 2010, Allison & Busby Fear in the Cotswolds 13 September 2010, Allison & Busby Grave in the Cotswolds 4 April 2011, Allison & Busby Deception in the Cotswolds (re-issued) 26 March 2012, Allison & Busby Malice in the Cotswolds 26 March 2012, Allison & Busby Shadows in the Cotswolds 25 March 2013, Allison & Busby Trouble in the Cotswolds 24 March 2014, Allison & Busby Revenge in the Cotswolds 19 March 2015, Allison & Busby Guilt in the Cotswolds 24 March 2016, Allison & Busby A Cotswold Casebook (short stories) 20 April 2017, Allison & Busby Peril in the Cotswolds 24 August 2017, Allison & Busby Crisis in the Cotswolds 19 April 2019, Allison & Busby Secrets in the Cotswolds 24 August 2019, Allison & Busby A Cotswold Christmas Mystery (forthcoming)
West Country Mysteries A Dirty Death Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby "Crimefile", The Birmingham Post 10 April 1999 Dark Undertakings 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby "Tripping down the yellow brick road to murder." Chicago Sun-Times 5 August 2001 Death of a Friend Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby "Glory amid the gore", The Scotsman 17 June 2000"Encarta Book of Quotations" Birmingham Evening Mail, 21 October 2000 Grave Concerns 7 February 2011, Allison & Busby "A cosmopolitan kiss of death" The Scotsman 9 December 2000 A Death to Record 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby The Sting of Death Reprint edition 7 February 2011, Allison & Busby A Market for Murder Reprint edition 7 February 2011, Allison & Busby
Lake District Mysteries The Windermere Witness 26 November 2012, Allison & Busby The Ambleside Alibi 26 August 2013, Allison & Busby The Coniston Case 24 July 2014, Allison & Busby The Troutbeck Testimony 21 May 2015, Allison & Busby The Hawkshead Hostage 19 May 2016, Allison & Busby The Bowness Bequest 18 May 2017, Allison & Busby The Staveley Suspect 19 April 2018, Allison & Busby The Grasmere Grudge 21 March 2019, Allison & Busby The Patterdale Plot 20 February 2020, Allison & Busby The Ullswater Undertaking 16 December 2021, Allison & Busby The Threlkeld Theory 2022, Allison & Busby The Askham Accusation 20 July 2023, Allison & Busby The Borrowdale Body 22 February 2024, Allison & Busby A Lake District Christmas Murder 25 September 2024, Allison & Busby
As ghostwriter Three novelisations of Rosemary and Thyme, credited to ITV series creator Brian Eastman, which were published in Britain by Allison and Busby and in Australia by Hardie Grant Books: And No Birds Sing (published in 2004, based on the pilot episode) Allison & Busby The Tree of Death (published in 2005, based on the final episode of Series 1) Allison & Busby Memory of Water (published in 2006, based on the feature-length opening episode of Series 2) Allison & Busby
Accolades 2009 Longlisted for Crimefest (International Crime Fiction Convention) "Sounds of Crime (unabridged)" for Blood in the Cotswolds (read by Caroline Lennon) 2010 Longlisted for Crimefest "eDunnit Award" for Fear in the Cotswolds 2010 Longlisted for Crimefest "Sounds of Crime longlist – unabridged" for Slaughter in the Cotswolds (read by Caroline Lennon) 2011 Longlisted for Crimefest "eDunnit Award" for A Grave in the Cotswolds 2011 Longlisted for Crimefest "Sounds of Crime longlist – unabridged" for A Grave in the Cotswolds (read by Caroline Lennon) 2012 Longlisted for Crimefest "Audible Sounds of Crime" for Deception in the Cotswolds (read by Caroline Lennon) 2012 Longlisted for Crimefest "Goldsboro Last Laugh Award" for Deception in the Cotswolds 2012 Longlisted for Crimefest "eDunnit Award" for Deception in the Cotswolds
References
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