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]

Background

Tope was born in 1948 in the Midlands and raised in Cheshire,^[4] then moved to Devon with her farming family. The farming life with its cruelty, death, frustration alternated with idyllic summer days, the teamwork of the harvest, the delight of the young animals, made for the powerful experiences that inspired her to write her first novel A Dirty Death.^[5]

She had various jobs before becoming an author, such as pre-natal instructor, marriage counselor, and funeral director, all of which gave her various human and social experiences, which she uses in her books.^[6]

In 1992, she founded Praxis Books, a small British press.^[4]

The books are set in real villages (Duntisbourne Abbots, Frampton Mansell, Blockley, Temple Guiting, Lower Slaughter, Cold Aston and Hampnett, Broad Campden, Snowshill and Winchcombe, the setting for the next 2013 title. She uses a kind of "anti research", avoiding discussion with any of the villagers, but does walk along the footpaths and visits most of the village pubs. She is currently working on a biography of Sabine Baring-Gould.

She attends many crime fiction events.^[7][8]

She was the Crime Writers' Association membership secretary of 2009,^[9] Christine Poulson takes over for 2010.

Tope lives in rural Herefordshire, on a smallholding near to the Black Mountains. She has a farm with Cotswold sheep and rare breed pigs. Her hobbies include spinning wool from her sheep, knitting and weaving. She takes commissions for big warm pure wool throws and blankets.^[10]

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^[11]
• Slaughter in the Cotswolds 22 Feb 2010, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749007935^[12]
• Fear in the Cotswolds 13 Sep 2010, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749008901^[13]
• 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^[14]
• Trouble in the Cotswolds 24 Mar 2014, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749014438^[14]
• Revenge in the Cotswolds 19 Mar 2015, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749017903^[14]
• Guilt in the Cotswolds 24 Mar 2016, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749019044^[14]

West Country Mysteries

• A Dirty Death Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749040086^[15]
• Dark Undertakings 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749040185^[16]
• Death of a Friend Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749040284^[17][18]
• Grave Concerns 7 Feb 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749009700^[19]
• A Death to Record 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749040383^[20]
• The Sting of Death Reprint edition 7 Feb 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749008895^[21]
• 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 Consiton Case 24 Jul 2014, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749016159^[14]
• The Troutbeck Testimony 21 May 2015, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749018139^[14]
• The Hawkshead Hostage 19 May 2016, Allison & Busby ISBN 978-0749019891^[14]

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)^[22]
• 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)^[23]
• 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)^[24]
• 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^[25]

External links

• Official website

References