Author Information
Cecilia Peartree's Latest Book

Newest Release

  • Bibliography:
    49 Books (3 Series)
  • First Book:
    June 2010
  • Latest Book:
    February 2024
  • Author Rating:
  • Share:

Full Series List in Order

Adventurous Quests

1 - The Lion and Unicorn Quest (Mar-2013)
2 - The Four Seasons Quest (Oct-2013)
3 - The Coronation Quest (Aug-2014)
4 - A Quest for Clemency (Feb-2016)
5 - A Quest in Berlin (Mar-2017)
6 - Quest for a Father (Jun-2018)

A Max Falconer Mystery

1 - Life and Death in the Woods (Feb-2021)
2 - The Case of the Late Capybara (Jul-2021)
3 - Death of a Delegate (Feb-2022)
4 - Rights and Wrongs (May-2023)

A Pitkirtly Mystery

1 - Crime in the Community (Nov-2010)
2 - Reunited in Death (Jun-2011)
3 - A Reformed Character (Sep-2011)
4 - Death at the Happiness Club (Apr-2012)
5 - Frozen in Crime (Oct-2012)
6 - The Queen of Scots Mystery (Jul-2013)
7 - A Tasteful Crime (Feb-2014)
8 - The Christmas Puzzle (Oct-2014)
9 - Death in a Cold Spring (May-2015)
10 - Closer to Death in a Garden (Sep-2015)
11 - The Pitkirtly Triangle (May-2016)
12 - A Creative Crime (Sep-2016)
13 - Unpredictable Events (May-2017)
14 - Promenade with Death (Oct-2017)
15 - Murder or What You Will (Jan-2018)
16 - The Unexpected Suspect (Sep-2018)
17 - Secrets of the Ice Palace (Dec-2018)
18 - Unrelated Incidents (May-2019)
19 - Careless Death (Sep-2019)
20 - The Spy Who Came Out of the Bushes (Apr-2020)
21 - Unsafe Distances (Oct-2020)
22 - The Identity Illusion (Jun-2021)
23 - The Christmas Catastrophe (Nov-2021)
24 - Criminal Classes (May-2022)
25 - It's a Long Way from Pitkirtly (Oct-2022)
26 - Two Steps to Murder (Aug-2023)

Book List in Order: 49 titles



  • What was Amaryllis doing at the rubbish tip in the middle of the night? And would she get away with it once her friend Christopher was on the case? This short tale of revenge, retribution and garden gnomes takes place in a small town in Scotland and ...



  • Christopher thinks he has his life under control until the mysterious Amaryllis arrives in the little town, spreading chaos and confusion in her wake.Suddenly he isn't sure about anything any more. Will he learn to relax and go with the flow or will ...



  • This is the second in a series of quirky mystery novels set in a small town in Scotland.When Jemima Stevenson helps to organise a Pitkirtly Homecoming day she has no idea that she has invited some of her long-lost cousins into danger.Reunited in Deat...



  • Can anyone ever really change? Christopher and Amaryllis ask themselves this question when a young man they already know as a troublemaker knocks at the door of their holiday caravan one wet day.Their attempt to answer it takes them and their friends...



  • Isabelle doesn't expect a summer job in the south of France to turn into a nightmare. But even before she encounters the mysterious Nathan Freelander at the wheel of a boat on the Canal du Midi, she is already fighting for survival, and after that th...



  • Death at the Happiness Club is the 4th in a series of quirky mysteries set in a small town in Scotland.When the Happiness Club comes to town, Maisie Sue sees it as an opportunity to rediscover romance, Jock McLean regards it with suspicion, and Jemim...



  • Frozen in Crime is the fifth novel in the Pitkirtly mystery series.As Christmas approaches, deep snow cloaks the little town of Pitkirtly, an armed robbery takes place and Jemima’s husband Dave disappears.Amaryllis, searching for adventure, wants t...



  • This is a collection of five short stories by Cecilia Peartree.Apocalypse Ready - The Apocalypse is allegedly due to happen on 21st December, 2012. Jock McLean uses the excuse to build up a secret survival stash in a silly place at his home in Pitkir...



  • Can people learn to leave the past behind them, and move on? Flora has tried hard to do this but her wartime past as a secret agent just won't let go of her. The spymaster she knew then seems to be pulling the strings again as an old adversary reappe...






  • This is the sixth novel in the Pitkirtly mystery series.What would you do if you thought you were about to lose everything you cared about most?Charlie Smith thought his career was more important to him than anything else. Amaryllis valued her free...



  • Is Aunt Caroline’s murder just an isolated incident or could it be part of a much larger web of crime and intrigue? The case spawns secrets of its own which threaten to separate Flora and Oliver almost as soon as they get engaged.Flora’s wartime ...



  • Blackberry Crumble is a short, light-hearted adventure story that takes place in a café. It was first published in the anthology ‘Off the KUF Volume 1’. It started life as a musical play but you’ll have to imagine the song and dance numbers as...



  • This is the seventh book in the Pitkirtly series of cosy mysteries, set in a fictitious small town on the coast of Fife.When the television programme Open Kitchen comes to town, there are various reactions from the people of Pitkirtly. Jemima is glad...



  • This book consists of 2 light-hearted novellas of about 16,000 words each, set in Edwardian times, mostly in Edinburgh, and linked by some of the characters involved.‘Adventure at the National Exhibition’ is a tale of old and new illusions, some ...



  • 'The Coronation Quest' is the third in the 'Adventurous Quest' series of historical mystery novels. It is set in 1953 in Britain, mostly in London at the time when everyone was preparing for the Coronation.On a stormy night, Clemency Quest picks up a...



  • This is the eighth novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series.Through a random combination of circumstances, Jock McLean and Amaryllis find themselves playing Santa Claus and his elf respectively at Pitkirtly Christmas Market, a blatant attempt to lure to...



  • This is the ninth novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series.It’s a cold spring in Pitkirtly. Amaryllis’s campaign to be elected to the local Council is approaching a conclusion, and the local minister has set up the Face of Pitkirtly art exhibition t...



  • This book is a sequel to 'Two Edwardian Adventures' and consists of two stories set in Edinburgh during the years just before the Great War.'Adventure at the Palace of Varieties' takes place in 1911, when the Great Lafayette, a world-famous illusioni...



  • Closer to Death in a Garden is the tenth novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series of stories set in a fictitious small town in Fife.Jemima's and Dave's visit to a garden centre is cut unexpectedly short, while Jock and Amaryllis both make the same grim ...






  • This is a shorter story linked to the Pitkirtly Mystery series. Because it isn’t novel length and is something of a meta-story, I haven’t given it a series number, but if it did have one it might be either 9.5 or 10.5. It’s best to have read at...



  • 'A Quest for Clemency' is the fourth in a series of mystery / thriller novels by Cecilia Peartree. It is set in 1950s Britain, mostly in Cambridge. Clemency, Oliver Quest's younger sister, gets her own story after playing a supporting rôle in the pr...



  • The Pitkirtly Triangle is the 11th novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a small town on the coast of Fife, in Scotland.Amaryllis is puzzled when the people she has been hired to track keep vanishing without trace. Is there a connection with ...



  • This is the twelfth novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a small town in West Fife - quite close to Culross but definitely not as picturesque.Christopher is aghast when Mr Miller from the Council tells him he has to host an event called 'Pit...



  • This is another shorter story linked to the Pitkirtly Mystery series. It’s similar in length to ‘Mysterious Pitkirtly’. If this had a series number, I think it would probably be 12.5 or thereabouts. It’s best to have read at least ‘A Reform...



  • This is the 5th novel in the 'Quest' series of mystery / thrillers set in the world of the 1950s.'A Quest in Berlin' plunges Andrew and Clemency into peril as they arrive in a city that still bears the scars of war and is now at the centre of the Col...



  • This is the 13th book in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a fictitious small town on the Fife coast in Scotland. Not a million miles from Culross, and yet rather different from it.Christopher finds that going away on holiday is a lot more trouble...



  • This is the 14th novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a fictitious small town on the coast of Fife.When an amateur theatre group plans a promenade performance on Pitkirtly Island in the dark - on Hallowe'en - this seems to Amaryllis like a r...



  • Warning! Are you ready for a new life with a new chic body? Then this book is YOURS.If you have chosen a ketogenic diet for rapid weight loss and keeping fit, you have made the right choice. It can pretty much give you what you want if you want to lo...



  • This is the 6th book in the 'Adventurous Quests' series of thriller novels set in the world of the 1950s, when people hadn't quite recovered from the war and were on the brink of being plunged into a cold war stand-off with Russia. 'Quest for a Fathe...






  • This is the 16th book in the Pitkirtly Mystery series. A stolen wheelbarrow gets Stewie into trouble through no fault of his own, and before long he is in danger of losing his job and his place at college. Meanwhile, someone takes most of the compute...



  • This is the 17th novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series.Penelope Johnstone can't help feeling a bit sorry for herself as she spends a significant birthday alone at home. But while she is still wondering why her son Zak and his partner Harriet haven't ...



  • This is the 18th novel in the Pitkirtly Mystery series, set in a small town on the coast of Fife, Scotland.A series of unexpected and apparently random incidents takes place in and around Pitkirtly. Rosie investigates a night-time disturbance at her ...



  • This is the 19th in the Pitkirtly Mystery series of novels set in a small fictitious town on the coast of Fife in Scotland.When Mollie goes to work one morning, she doesn't expect to receive a visit from the police with news of a death in her house. ...



  • This is a new collection of five short stories, of which three are set in Pitkirtly, home of the Pitkirtly Mysteries, and two are freestanding stories.In 'Christmas Lights', there are various theories in the local pub, the Queen of Scots, about the C...



  • This is the 20th novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series.Maisie Sue's wedding is disrupted by shadows from the past, while Christopher fights against the inexorable intrusion of the future into his working life, and once again Amaryllis is not the on...



  • This is the 21st novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series, set in the present day in a fictitious small town on the Fife coast, not far from Culross but definitely not based on any real place.When they find evidence of intruders in the Cultural Centre...



  • A woodland building project unearths truths that might otherwise have remained hidden, and causes people to question aspects of themselves and others that they hadn’t taken any notice of before.More or less against his will, Max, a curator in a...



  • This is the 22nd novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series, set in a small fictitious town on the south coast of Fife which is definitely not Culross, though quite close to it geographically.Kyle is sent to Old Pitkirtlyhill House, once the home of the...



  • When the stuffed capybara that was intended to form the centrepiece of a new display goes missing, Max Falconer and his colleagues follow its trail from the museum to a conservation studio in East Lothian and then to the home of a freelance taxidermi...






  • This is the 23rd novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series.Christmas approaches again as it does at this time every year, somewhat to Christopher’s surprise. He has lost track of Mollie’s ambitious festive plans for the Cultural Centre, but...



  • This is the 3rd novel in the Max Falconer mysteries. A museum conference in Inverness turns out to be more exciting - and more dangerous - than many of the participants expect. While Max prepares to give a paper, Philippa plays at being a tourist and...



  • This is the 24th book in the Pitkirtly Mystery series. Clementine Fairfax, previously encountered in 'The Identity Illusion', returns to Pitkirtly under cover to investigate a computer crime which has been traced to Pitkirtly College computing depart...



  • This collection includes the title novella, A Little Too Fond of Cake, and a handful of short stories of various lengths and genres. A Little Too Fond of Cake, a dark comedy of novella length (in 13 chapters), tells the separate but somehow inextrica...



  • This is the 25th in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series of quirky mystery novels set in Scotland. It’s early autumn and Dave and Jemima are heading for Loch Rannoch, in Highland Perthshire, not to view the autumn colours but to meet a long-lost cous...



  • On moving day, Pamela Prendergast, recently widowed under unusual circumstances, opens her front door and takes delivery of an unexpected gift from a complete stranger. Not long afterwards, she makes a series of unwelcome discoveries about her late h...



  • This is the 4th of the Max Falconer mysteries, centring on a museum curator whose vole research is frequently interrupted by criminal and other activities.The museum is already in crisis, with the director in hospital and a new threat from a mysterio...



  • This is the 26th novel in the Pitkirtly Mysteries series.When a music festival takes over the town, most people predict some kind of trouble, but the presence of Amaryllis's former colleague Green makes this seem even more likely.So in the intervals ...



  • This is a collection of 13 short stories in a variety of genres and styles by the author of the Pitkirtly Mysteries. Murder at the Calico Cat Café and Family Heirlooms are closest to being real mystery stories. Terror at the Bus Stop and Hearing...



  • This is the second of the Pamela Prendergast Mysteries.When a tree falls through the roof of Maisie Macdonald’s conservatory, Pamela is at a loss to know where to hold her recently formed art class. A call from a stranger, Emma Blackford, solve...





Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Cecilia Peartree has published 49 books.

Cecilia Peartree does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Watcher in the Shrubbery, was published in February 2024.

The first book by Cecilia Peartree, Recycled, was published in June 2010.

Yes. Cecilia Peartree has 3 series.