Forgotten Book: THE WILL AND THE DEED, Ellis Peters writing as Edith Pargeter

My little green book

My plan this year for my contributions to Friday's Forgotten Books hosted by Pattinase is to feature books I read 20 years ago - in 1993- from the records I have in my "little green book", which I started in 1975. In 1993 I read 111 books and was pretty well addicted to crime fiction by then.
 
My choice this week comes from March 1993: 
In 1960 Ellis Peters writing as Edith Pargeter published THE WILL AND THE DEED, published in the USA as WHERE THERE'S A WILL.

From Good Reads..

The reading of the will of legendary diva Antonia Byrne turns out to hold some unpleasant surprises for her nearest and dearest: one way or another, none of them get quite what they are expecting.

And when a quirk of Fate maroons the mourners in a tiny snowbound mountain village for Christmas, it is inevitable that feelings will be far from festive.

But what no one could predict is that one of their number has lethally sinister intentions and when the final curtain falls, it turns out to be Antonia herself who has had the last laugh…

The only cover images I have found so far actually show Ellis Peters as the author although Fantastic Fiction attributes it to Edith Pargeter.

Pargeter wrote under a number of pseudonyms: Peter Benedict, Jolyon Carr, John Redfern, and Ellis Peters which how she is mainly remembered (the Cadfael novels).

Some recommendations on Library Thing:

This is a non-series mystery, a sort of English-country-house plot picked up and dropped in the middle of Switzerland. Great character studies - Ellis Peters's people are never cookie cutter types. Nice little plot, rife with misunderstanding and misdirection. And the revelation at the end was very nicely done indeed. It's a quick read, but a quality one.

An interesting island-style mystery. When a group of people are going to the reading of a will they find themselves in a plane crash and lost in a small alpine village. The will is read and found to be disappointing on several levels and then one of the inheritors dies. 

A musical mystery. Legendary diva Antonia Byrne has left some unpleasant surprises in her will. Her nearest and dearest are marooned in a tiny village at Christmas time, and feelings run high. (1960) Average - an okay mystery, but not terribly exciting or memorable.