Isabella Bassett Books In Order

Publication Order of Lady Caroline Murder Mysteries Books

Publication Order of Old Bookstore Cozy Mysteries Books

Isabella Bassett is a historical mystery and cozy mystery fiction author from Switzerland.
She has said that just like the lead character of her “Out of Print Bookstore Mysteries” series, she moved to the mountainous state just so that she could write. Nonetheless, she never doubted her decision on becoming an author like Anne.
Isabella published “Out of Print,” her debut novel in 2021, and has since become quite a prolific author. She now has more than a dozen novels to her name and still continues to write.

Her works are spread across at least two series of novels in the “Out of Print Bookstore” and the “Lady Caroline Murder Mystery” series of novels.

Isabella makes her home in one of Southern Switzerland’s picturesque towns. It is a town deep in the folds of the Alps in which she sometimes sets her stories.
Similar to Anne she is a love of old forgotten places and can often be found exploring such places.

It was while Isabella Bassett was walking down one of the cobbled and winding alleys of Ascona that she had the idea for her debut series. Walking down the street, she began wondering about the many secrets the stone walls could be hiding.
She went on to invent a mystery series, as she weaved together bits of the interesting history of Switzerland into several murder mystery puzzles in the cozy genre.

Over the years, Bassett has become known for immersing her readers in the unexpected Southern Switzerland charm with hints of Mediterranean culture.

From Switzerland to Italy and the French Riviera, her novel transport her reader to the glamorous European world of the 1920s, where privilege and money rub shoulders and murder, envy and greed are never far behind.
The author loves to inform her readers about the many picturesque towns in Switzerland which inspire her novels.

On her website, she usually writes blogs about the many towns she usually visits while researching her novels. Bassette also loves to interact with her readers through her email list.
On her list, she provides short travelogues of hidden lovely spots in Switzerland and information on upcoming books.

Isabella Bassett’s novel “Murder at the Grand Hotel” is a work set in the French Riviera in 1925.

The lead in the novel is Lady Caroline a disgraced society girl that has just been sent to the French Riviera. There she is to spend some time with Uncle Albert a gout-impaired man.
She had been banished to France for engaging in an ill-advised scavenger hunt in London, a stunt that had ruinous social consequences.

Rather than engage in police helmet pinching, Lady Caroline has to engage in her uncle’s favorite hobby along the rocky Cote d’Azur cliffs.

However, Lady Caroline’s life is not all misery as soon there is a murder which significantly brightens up what had been a pretty dull existence.

It starts with the poisoning of a well-connected seductress while playing at the roulette table. Soon after, a famous architect of expensive and elaborate villas falls off the bluffs to his death in the blue Mediterranean Sea.
With the body count rising, the local police begin to suspect that someone is using nefarious means to force their way up the social ladder. Lady Caroline being the lover of a scavenger hunt proceeds to set up one hoping it would lead to the killer.
It is an entertaining and quick read in a subgenre that has almost become a genre of its own.

“Death in the Garden” by Isabella Bassett is another intriguing addition to the “Lady Caroline Murder Mysteries” series of novels.

The work is set in the Italian town of Lake Garda in 1925. The lead is a man named Uncle Albert who in the pursuit of a hobby heads to Lake Garda and a secluded island.

His reluctant secretary is Lady Caroline, who follows in his wake guided by ancestral duty. They had come together to throw a midnight soiree to celebrate the debut of the Queen of the Night.

But as they are preparing to witness the once-a-year blooming of the exotic plant, Uncle Albert is found with a dead body in the villa’s conservatory. Even worse, they also discover the Quen of the Night has been irreparably damaged.

The only thing Lady Caroline wants to to clear her uncle’s name but he seems ever determined to dig himself even deeper. When a second body is discovered and her uncle is once again the lead suspect, she decides to once again set up a scavenger hunt.
“Death in the Garden” makes for an Italy-based golden age whodunnit set in an elegant historical location with a closed circle of high social class suspects with a puzzling murder mystery but absent much of the gore.

Isabella Bassett’s novel “A Body in the Villa” has to be one of the best novels that the author has ever written. The work is set in Switzerland in 1925 and continues to follow the adventures of Lady Caroline.

The members of the Royal Society for Natural History Appreciation to which Uncle Albert belongs just heard something interesting. A rare bird has been sighted in the lush Alpine meadows in Switzerland and they head out together to get a closer look.
The fact that they are going to be living at a luxurious villa in addition to the promise of a lavish party persuades Lady Caroline who is Uncle Albert’s enthusiastic secretary and nice to tag along.

As they drink copious amounts of champagne, tales of rare birds grow even more outrageous just before a killer makes his move. One very risque guest is found strangled with her own richly woven dress.
When a charming rogue is killed next, the police have a theory that someone may be targetting the exotic-seeming people at the house party out in the country.

Lady Caroline dismisses the idea as she is suspecting that there is a cunning killer using the country house party for some other sinister motive.

As usual, she sets up a scavenger hunt hoping to follow clues to the man determined to spoil a good party.