The office above Harper’s Bookshop, Seabrook

Penrose Investigations Postcards
The cover of Grounds for Murder: Holmes, a grey tabby, lying on an allotment path in front of canes hung with red tomatoes, with a garden shed behind and a metal watering can beside him.

Penrose Investigations, Book 2

Grounds for Murder

Stolen tools. Prize plants destroyed. And a week of trouble the police called a civil matter.

Somebody is sabotaging the Seabrook allotments. Tools are stolen, prize plants destroyed, seed beds dug up. The police call it a civil matter. The chair of the allotment committee comes up the stairs above Harper’s Bookshop instead. Arthur Penrose expects petty feuding, and finds plenty of it. The second novel in the Penrose Investigations series.

Coming to Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Join the Postcards to hear first

Not yet on the shelf. It follows Murder at Seabrook Pier.

Planned for

  • Kindle
  • Kindle Unlimited

Every Penrose mystery stands alone. Start here if you like.

In this book

The players

The case

June in Seabrook, and somebody has taken against the allotments.

First it is tools. Then prize plants are destroyed and seed beds are dug up. It is not the weather and it is not the rabbits. The chair of the allotment committee watches a week of it.

The police consider it a civil matter. On the Sunday, she comes up the stairs above Harper’s Bookshop instead.

Arthur Penrose is a retired detective with a cat called Holmes, an office that looks down on the harbour, and a habit of noticing things other people miss. The allotments lie just above that harbour: sheds, water butts, bean poles, a communal tap, and a noticeboard of committee minutes and pointed notices. He expects petty feuding. He finds plenty of it.

He also finds a plot that has gone under tarpaulins. Its owner visits at odd hours, and the town has formed a view about what he is growing.

Who goes to this much trouble over a few rows of beans?

Book 2 of the Penrose Investigations, the Seabrook cosy mysteries. Each book stands alone.

Questions readers ask

Is Grounds for Murder a standalone?

Yes. Grounds for Murder is a complete mystery with its own case and its own client. It is the second novel in the Penrose Investigations series, and you need not have read the first. Every Penrose mystery stands alone.

Is Grounds for Murder a cosy mystery?

Yes. Grounds for Murder keeps the rules of the series: no gore, no swearing, and nothing violent shown on the page. It begins with stolen tools and spoiled seed beds on the town allotments.

Is there a cat in Grounds for Murder?

Yes. Holmes the cat, a grey tabby, is in every Penrose mystery, and he is on the cover of this one. He is an ordinary cat: he never speaks and never solves anything.

Where is Seabrook?

Seabrook is a fictional seaside town on the south coast of England, with a Victorian pier, a working harbour and a High Street. No county is ever named. The nearest railway station is at Hartbury, two miles inland. Grounds for Murder is set there in June 2026, on the allotments above the harbour.

How long is Grounds for Murder?

Grounds for Murder is planned as a full-length novel of about twenty chapters. It has not been published yet, so there is no page count to give.

Is Grounds for Murder on Kindle Unlimited?

That is the plan. Grounds for Murder is intended for Kindle and Kindle Unlimited when it is published, as are the other Penrose Investigations novels. It is not on sale yet.

Is there an audiobook of Grounds for Murder?

Not yet. An audiobook of Book 1, Murder at Seabrook Pier, is in production, and none has been announced for Grounds for Murder.

What order should I read the Penrose Investigations in?

Any order you like. Every Penrose mystery is a separate case. In story order the series runs: A Small Matter of a Missing Cat (the free prequel), Murder at Seabrook Pier, Grounds for Murder, The Seabrook Regatta Sabotage.

The series, and the order to read it in

Also in the series

  • Book 1Coming

    Murder at Seabrook Pier

    A locked cabinet. A missing music box. And a death the police called an accident.

    Coming to Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

  • Book 3Coming

    The Seabrook Regatta Sabotage

    Regatta week, and somebody is sinking Seabrook’s chances one boat at a time.

    Coming to Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

All the books, on the shelf

He would follow a kipper across town. That is Dora Tilling’s assessment and nobody has challenged it.