Rebecca Tope

Rebecca Tope
Born	Rebecca Tope (1948-10-02) 2 October 1948 (age 76) Cheshire
Nationality	British
Occupation(s)	Author, journalist

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

Rebecca Tope was born on 2 October 1948, in Worcestershire, and has lived in many parts of England since then. She has nearly 40 crime novels in print, published by Allison & Busby. Her two main series are set in the Cotswolds and the Lake District, both featuring amateur female detectives.

She lives on a smallholding in Herefordshire, but has had no livestock for some years. The acres have been returned to the wildlife, which includes a lot of brambles and thistles.

She founded a small press, Praxis Books, in 1992, which has concentrated almost exclusively on reissuing the works of Sabine Baring-Gould (1834–1924). She has also written and published a definitive biography of Baring-Gould.

Tope's hobbies mainly centre around wool, antique auctions and travel.

Bibliography

The Cotswold Mysteries

• A Cotswold Killing 23 May 2005, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749083984
• A Cotswold Ordeal 31 October 2006, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749082680
• Death in the Cotswolds 28 April 2008, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749080648
• A Cotswold Mystery 28 August 2008, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749079420
• Blood in the Cotswolds 7 September 2009, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749007300 ^[4]
• Slaughter in the Cotswolds 22 February 2010, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749007935 ^[5]
• Fear in the Cotswolds 13 September 2010, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749008901 ^[6]
• Grave in the Cotswolds 4 April 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749009168
• Deception in the Cotswolds (re-issued) 26 March 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749010621
• Malice in the Cotswolds 26 March 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749010645
• Shadows in the Cotswolds 25 March 2013, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749011239
• Trouble in the Cotswolds 24 March 2014, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749014438
• Revenge in the Cotswolds 19 March 2015, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749017903
• Guilt in the Cotswolds 24 March 2016, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749019044
• A Cotswold Casebook (short stories) 20 April 2017, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749020149
• Peril in the Cotswolds 24 August 2017, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749021689
• Crisis in the Cotswolds 19 April 2019, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749023386
• Secrets in the Cotswolds 24 August 2019, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749024338
• A Cotswold Christmas Mystery (forthcoming) ^[7]

West Country Mysteries

• A Dirty Death Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749040086 ^[8]
• Dark Undertakings 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749040185 ^[9]
• Death of a Friend Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749040284 ^{[10] [11]}
• Grave Concerns 7 February 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749009700 ^[12]
• A Death to Record 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749040383 ^[13]
• The Sting of Death Reprint edition 7 February 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749008895 ^[14]
• A Market for Murder Reprint edition 7 February 2011, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749008949

Lake District Mysteries

• The Windermere Witness 26 November 2012, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749012595
• The Ambleside Alibi 26 August 2013, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749012748
• The Coniston Case 24 July 2014, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749016159
• The Troutbeck Testimony 21 May 2015, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749018139
• The Hawkshead Hostage 19 May 2016, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749019891
• The Bowness Bequest 18 May 2017, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749021078
• The Staveley Suspect 19 April 2018, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749022396
• The Grasmere Grudge 21 March 2019, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749024307
• The Patterdale Plot 20 February 2020, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749025809
• The Ullswater Undertaking 16 December 2021, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749027605
• The Threlkeld Theory 2022, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749028619
• The Askham Accusation 20 July 2023, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749029715
• The Borrowdale Body 22 February 2024, Allison & Busby ISBN   978-0749031619 ^[7]

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) ^[15]
• 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) ^[16]
• 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) ^[17]
• 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 ^[18]

References

1. "Profile". Knight Hall agency. Archived from the original on 18 March 2014.
2. "A choice of recent crime fiction", The Spectator 24 March 2001
3. "Words and music to raise the rafters". The Forester. 20 May 2010.
4. "Murder detectives sought". Evesham Journal. 27 April 2008. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
5. "Best-selling author in Broadway book signing". Evesham Journal. 21 March 2010. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
6. "Evesham Journal New Book Launch 23 November 2009" . Retrieved 8 June 2019.
7. "Books by Rebecca Tope". allisonandbusby.com. Retrieved 25 July 2025.
8. "Crimefile", The Birmingham Post 10 April 1999
9. "Tripping down the yellow brick road to murder." Chicago Sun-Times 5 August 2001
10. "Glory amid the gore", The Scotsman 17 June 2000
11. "Encarta Book of Quotations" Birmingham Evening Mail, 21 October 2000
12. "A cosmopolitan kiss of death" The Scotsman 9 December 2000
13. "Make the detective fit the crime". Telegraph.co.uk. 31 August 2001. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
14. "Fiction Review: Sting of Death by Rebecca Tope, Author Minotaur Books…". Archived from the original on 1 February 2013.
15. "crime fiction convention in Bristol, UK". Crimefest. 2009. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
16. "crime fiction convention in Bristol, UK". Crimefest. 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
17. "crime fiction convention in Bristol, UK". Crimefest. 2010. Retrieved 8 October 2012.
18. "crime fiction convention in Bristol, UK". Crimefest. 2012. Retrieved 8 October 2012.

External links

• Official website