"Her writing is moment by moment intense, and successful as such... What propels the reader through the pages is not the tug of 'who done it' nor the excitement of men with guns coming through doors, but the sheer excellence of the writing." - H.R.F. Keating A car speeds down a road between miles of marshes and estuary flats, its passenger a young woman named Agnes, fresh from a discovery that has turned her world turned upside down. Meanwhile, the news of a body found on the marsh is spreading round the local area, panic following in its wake. A masterpiece of suspense, Mary Kelly's 1962 novel follows Agnes as she casts her mind back through the past few days to find the links between her husband, his friends, a mysterious stranger new to the village and a case of unexplained death. Gripping, intelligent and affecting, Due to a Death was nominated for the Gold Dagger Award and showcases the author's versatility and willingness to push the boundaries of the mystery genre.

Staffordshire in the 1950s. Within the clay tanks at the pottery company Shentall's, a body has been found. Amid cries of industrial espionage and sabotage of this leader of the pottery industry, there is a case of bitter murder to solve for Inspector Hedley Nicholson. Kelly's mystery won the CWA Gold Dagger Award in 1961 for its impeccable sense of place and detail, and for the emotional weight of its central crime. The novel is part of a shift from the cosiness of crime novels before to mysteries characterised by their psychological interest and affecting realism. An influential classic.