Black As He’s Painted / Last Ditch / Grave Mistake

Commemorating 75 years since the Empress of Crime’s first book, the tenth volume in a set of omnibus editions presenting the complete run of 32 Inspector Alleyn mysteries.BLACK AS HE'S PAINTEDCalled in to help with security arrangements for a presidential reception at a London embassy, Chief Superintendent Alleyn ensures the house and grounds are stiff with police. Nevertheless, an assassin strikes, and Alleyn finds no shortage of help, from Special Branch to a tribal court – and a small black cat named Lucy Lockett…LAST DITCHYoung Rickie Alleyn has come to the Channel Islands to write, but village life seems tedious – until he finds the stablehand in a ditch, dead from an unlucky jump. But Rickie notices something strange and his father, Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn, is discreetly summoned to the scene, when Rickie disappears…GRAVE MISTAKEWith two husbands dead, a daughter marrying the wrong man and a debilitating disease, it is no wonder that Sybil Foster took her own life. But Chief Superintendent Roderick Alleyn doesn't believe she was the type to kill herself – and he thinks someone else has made a very grave mistake…