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.
WWW rebeccatope.com

Life and career

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. She has also written and published a definitive biography of Baring-Gould.
Tope's hobbies mainly centre around wool, antique auctions and travel.

The Cotswold Mysteries

  • A Cotswold Killing 23 May 2005, Allison & Busby
  • A Cotswold Ordeal 31 October 2006, Allison & Busby
  • Death in the Cotswolds 28 April 2008, Allison & Busby
  • A Cotswold Mystery 28 August 2008, Allison & Busby
  • Blood in the Cotswolds 7 September 2009, Allison & Busby
  • Slaughter in the Cotswolds 22 February 2010, Allison & Busby
  • Fear in the Cotswolds 13 September 2010, Allison & Busby
  • Grave in the Cotswolds 4 April 2011, Allison & Busby
  • Deception in the Cotswolds 26 March 2012, Allison & Busby
  • Malice in the Cotswolds 26 March 2012, Allison & Busby
  • Shadows in the Cotswolds 25 March 2013, Allison & Busby
  • Trouble in the Cotswolds 24 March 2014, Allison & Busby
  • Revenge in the Cotswolds 19 March 2015, Allison & Busby
  • Guilt in the Cotswolds 24 March 2016, Allison & Busby
  • A Cotswold Casebook 20 April 2017, Allison & Busby
  • Peril in the Cotswolds 24 August 2017, Allison & Busby
  • Crisis in the Cotswolds 19 April 2019, Allison & Busby
  • Secrets in the Cotswolds 24 August 2019, Allison & Busby
  • ''A Cotswold Christmas Mystery''

West Country Mysteries

  • A Dirty Death Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby
  • Dark Undertakings 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby
  • Death of a Friend Reprint edition 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby
  • Grave Concerns 7 February 2011, Allison & Busby
  • A Death to Record 28 May 2012, Allison & Busby
  • The Sting of Death Reprint edition 7 February 2011, Allison & Busby
  • A Market for Murder Reprint edition 7 February 2011, Allison & Busby

Lake District Mysteries

  • The Windermere Witness 26 November 2012, Allison & Busby
  • The Ambleside Alibi 26 August 2013, Allison & Busby
  • The Coniston Case 24 July 2014, Allison & Busby
  • The Troutbeck Testimony 21 May 2015, Allison & Busby
  • The Hawkshead Hostage 19 May 2016, Allison & Busby
  • The Bowness Bequest 18 May 2017, Allison & Busby
  • The Staveley Suspect 19 April 2018, Allison & Busby
  • The Grasmere Grudge 21 March 2019, Allison & Busby
  • The Patterdale Plot 20 February 2020, Allison & Busby
  • The Ullswater Undertaking 16 December 2021, Allison & Busby
  • The Threlkeld Theory 2022, Allison & Busby
  • The Askham Accusation 20 July 2023, Allison & Busby
  • The Borrowdale Body 22 February 2024, Allison & Busby
  • A Lake District Christmas Murder 25 September 2024, Allison & Busby

As ghostwriter

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 Allison & Busby The Tree of Death Allison & Busby Memory of Water Allison & Busby

Accolades

  • 2009 Longlisted for Crimefest "Sounds of Crime " for Blood in the Cotswolds
  • 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
  • 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
  • 2012 Longlisted for Crimefest "Audible Sounds of Crime" for Deception in the Cotswolds
  • 2012 Longlisted for Crimefest "Goldsboro Last Laugh Award" for Deception in the Cotswolds
  • 2012 Longlisted for Crimefest "eDunnit Award" for ''Deception in the Cotswolds''