Murder in a Manner of Speaking — Hazel Wynn Jones

Shy young novelist Elaine Astolat is persuaded to embark upon a new career as a speaker to literary societies when she becomes a client of the Crispin Speakers' Agency. Astolat soon discovers that even in literary societies there may lurk poisonous serpents.Before long, she finds herself caught in a spider's web of deception and murder, in a mannr of speaking.