Rebecca Tope
Rebecca Tope is a British 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.[1][2][3]
Rebecca Tope | |
---|---|
Born | Rebecca Tope 2 October 1948 Cheshire |
Nationality | British |
Occupation | Author, journalist |
Background
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 ISBN 978-0749083984
- A Cotswold Ordeal 31 Oct 2006, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749082680
- Death in the Cotswolds 28 April 2008, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749080648
- A Cotswold Mystery 28 Aug 2008, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749079420
- Blood in the Cotswolds 7 Sep 2009, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749007300[4]
- Slaughter in the Cotswolds 22 Feb 2010, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749007935[5]
- Fear in the Cotswolds 13 Sep 2010, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749008901[6]
- Grave in the Cotswolds 4 April 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749009168
- Deception in the Cotswolds (re-issued) 26 Mar 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749010621
- Malice in the Cotswolds 26 Mar 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749010645
- Shadows in the Cotswolds 25 Mar 2013, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749011239
- Trouble in the Cotswolds 24 Mar 2014, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749014438
- Revenge in the Cotswolds 19 Mar 2015, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749017903
- Guilt in the Cotswolds 24 Mar 2016, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749019044
- A Cotswold Casebook (short stories) 20 Apr 2017, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749020149
- Peril in the Cotswolds 24 Aug 2017, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749021689
- Crisis in the Cotswolds 19 Apr 2019, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749023386
- Secrets in the Cotswolds 24 Aug 2019, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749024338
- A Cotswold Christmas Mystery (forthcoming)[7]
West Country Mysteries
- A Dirty Death Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749040086[8]
- Dark Undertakings 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749040185[9]
- Death of a Friend Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749040284[10][11]
- Grave Concerns 7 Feb 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749009700[12]
- A Death to Record 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749040383[13]
- The Sting of Death Reprint edition 7 Feb 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749008895[14]
- A Market for Murder Reprint edition 7 Feb 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749008949
Lake District Mysteries
- The Windermere Witness 26 Nov 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749012595
- The Ambleside Alibi 26 Aug 2013, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749012748
- The Coniston Case 24 Jul 2014, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749016159
- The Troutbeck Testimony 21 May 2015, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749018139
- The Hawkshead Hostage 19 May 2016, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749019891
- The Bowness Bequest 18 May 2017, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749021078
- The Staveley Suspect 19 Apr 2018, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749022396
- The Grasmere Grudge 21 Mar 2019, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749024307
- The Patterdale Plot 20 Feb 2020, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749025809[7]
Ghostwritten
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 ISBN 978-0749083410
- The Tree of Death (published in 2005, based on the final episode of Series 1) Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749081409
- Memory of Water (published in 2006, based on the feature-length opening episode of Series 2) Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749081270
Awards
- 2009 Longlisted for Crimefest (International Crime Fiction Convention) "Sounds of Crime (unabridged)" for Blood in the Cotswolds (read by Caroline Lennon)[15]
- 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)[16]
- 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)[17]
- 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[18]
References
- "Profile". Knight Hall agency. Archived from the original on 18 March 2014.
- "A choice of recent crime fiction", The Spectator 24 March 2001
- "Words and music to raise the rafters". The Forester. 20 May 2010.
- "Murder detectives sought". Evesham Journal. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- "Best-selling author in Broadway book signing". Evesham Journal. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- "Evesham Journal New Book Launch 23 November 2009". Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- "Books by Rebecca Tope". allisonandbusby.com. Retrieved 23 December 2019.
- "Crimefile", The Birmingham Post 10 April 1999
- "Tripping down the yellow brick road to murder." Chicago Sun-Times 5 August 2001
- "Glory amid the gore", The Scotsman 17 June 2000
- "Encarta Book of Quotations" Birmingham Evening Mail, 21 October 2000
- "A cosmopolitan kiss of death" The Scotsman 9 December 2000
- "Make the detective fit the crime". Telegraph.co.uk. 31 August 2001. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
- "Fiction Review: Sting of Death by Rebecca Tope, Author Minotaur Books…". Archived from the original on 1 February 2013.
- "crime fiction convention in Bristol, UK". Crimefest. 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
- "crime fiction convention in Bristol, UK". Crimefest. 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
- "crime fiction convention in Bristol, UK". Crimefest. 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
- "crime fiction convention in Bristol, UK". Crimefest. 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2012.