How to murder your mother-in-law

A smart and funny cross between a comedy of manners and a murder mystery, Dorothy Cannell's How To Murder Your Mother-in-Law is a true delight. The heroine Ellie Haskell has a sensual and handsome husband, adorable two-year-old twins, a fashion disaster for a housekeeper who is well-meaning albeit always slightly tipsy, and a cousin who enters through the windows -- never the doors -- of their English mansion quaintly named "Merlin's Castle." Into this charming mix arrives her straight-laced mother-in-law and mostly deaf father-in-law who have their own surprises in store for Ellie and her husband. After one extremely frazzled dinner party that goes awry, Ellie marches down to the pub where she comes upon the local rector, the daughter-in-law of the local patroness of the arts, and another friend who are all having mother-in-law problems. Their fantasies of "doing the old girl in" begin to be realized much to these ladies' horror. Ellie must move swiftly to unravel the mysteries of these deaths to save her own mother-in-law