E.J. Lamprey Books In Order

Publication Order of Grasshopper Lawns Books

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

E.J. Lamprey
After spending fifteen years in Scotland, Elizabeth Lamprey upped sticks in 2017 and moved to the Costa Tropical in Spain, proof of the dangers of thorough research, which had taken her there numerous times.

Her typical style is cozy. She describes the gentle rambling as being a bit like the “No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” and the “Hamish Macbeth” series is probably the closest with a Scottish setting.

She deals with writer’s block by writing. Anything at all. A blog. A long email to a friend. Snippets for the next book slotted into Scrivener, so that they are there and waiting when the words do begin to flow again. She takes part in a monthly microstory competition, and this is such a complete change of direction, tightly disciplined, ruthlessly pruned to tell a full story in just a few hundred words that it typically does the trick.

“One Two Buckle My Shoe” is the first novel in the “Grasshopper Lawns” series and was released in 2013. Nobody was all that surprised when the most unpopular resident at Grasshopper Lawns (an unconventional retirement village for people over 55) was murdered. But whose murder was she attempting to report?

“Three Four Knock on My Door” is the second novel in the “Grasshopper Lawns” series and was released in 2013. Life has settled back to normal; at least as normal as it can be in such a Scottish retirement village, where residents are selected for their interesting histories. William and Vivian are relishing their lively flirtation, there’s this new resident with their dreadful dog, and Sylvia is enjoying the visit of her handsome and devoted nephew.

Even a young and pretty Kenyan girl’s suicide does not appear to need the murder solving abilities of the four friends. The most exotic visitor is enigmatic Dallas from Louisiana, with some life changing news for Vivian; however once Death makes a personal call, the recent events take a more sinister aspect.

Yet again the amateur sleuths of the retirement village combine to solve a murder in between unexpected family, winter picnics, mad dogs, and Englishmen. Australians, anyway.

“Five Six Pick Up Sticks” is the third novel in the “Grasshopper Lawns” series and was released in 2013. It is one thing to be a mature single dying to find love on singles websites. A whole other thing entirely when it turns into just dying.

Website dating for the over-fifty crowd is certainly a boom industry, however for some it has only proved to be a dead end, and the Scottish cops want to know why that is. Sergeant Kirsty Cameron’s aunt Edge is the ideal age to become the bait in their investigation. She will, obviously, get monitored closely at all times, nothing could possibly go wrong in this.

This third book in the “Grasshopper Lawns” series dives gleefully into the murkiest end of the senior singles dating pool (where there are predators lurking) with Edge secretly hoping to meet somebody special. It is spring, and it appears the rest of the world is in love, could there be somebody out there for her? Preferably not the killer, obviously.

William, Vivian, and Donald insist on riding shotgun in the restaurants and pubs all round the gorgeous Forth area in Scotland, which is a bit of a nuisance once Mr. Right does come along. Unless he is just yet another dead end.

“Seven Eight Play it Straight” is the fourth novel in the “Grasshopper Lawns” series and was released in 2014. The Edinburgh Festival, a dazzling hectic backdrop for another murder. Edge’s actress stepdaughter is performing in a successful Fringe show during the Edinburgh Festival. Long standing hostilities get set aside once a bloody and violent murder strikes much too close to home, however this temporary truce does not last too long after Fiona accuses Edge of this murder.

Actually, it was the wrong person getting murdered, something that complicates things just a bit. Edge has got a fair bit on her mind as it is, this unexpected relationship that she is not totally sure is even a good idea, and some rather exciting developments with this TV script she’s been working on. Miss P is getting pursued by this intense admirer, and Kirsty’s ex Rory steps quite literally onto the stage. Vivian and William are settling comfortably into their relationship.

And this time there is inevitably fancy dress, melodrama, performing artists, totally contrived coincidences and theatrical makeup which leads to the climax. How not, during the fabulous Edinburgh Festival? A romp of a novel bathed in August sunshine, even though it does wind up taking the series’ body count up through the roof.

“Nine Ten Begin Again” is the fifth novel in the “Grasshopper Lawns” series and was released in 2014. When life belatedly hands you and your buddies murders, it is handy to have all of that combined experience to solve them. When life adds in an unexpected love affair, it does not mean that the murders have stopped, however it is certainly distracting.

Not so surprising, there are murky things going on at the Grasshopper Lawns retirement, however for once they aren’t getting the typical attention they deserve. Hamish (the popular bursar) is on a year’s sabbatical and has just been replaced by a political wannabe that alienates everybody. She is not the sole new appointment: there is also a very suspect new maintenance manager that does not delight the female residents nearly as much as he believes he does.

There is progress on Edge’s possible new TV series, called “Pick Up Sticks”. Donald sets up a visit to his kinda dubious social club (which sails closer than he had ever intended to the very dodgy world of leather fetishism and BDSM), and Vivian upsets the apple cart by almost dying of pneumonia. One way or another, the four buddies are certainly distracted, and even wondering whether they’re so used to intrigue that they’re making mountains outta molehills.

This novel is an ‘affair’ rather than a typical whodunnit. It’s still a whodunnit, and the clues are tucked right in plain sight as much as they ever were. But there is a totally unexpected affair. Lamprey changed the subtitle for the purists.