Six packed suitcases. An elaborately iced cake. Two dozen dark red roses. A case of vintage champagne. All converging on the house know n as Foxes' Trot in the country of Surrey... and for the most innocent and pleasant of reasons. Lady Balaclava's three daughters and their husbands were coming to celebrate her seventieth birthday.

So why did Crystal Balaclava go in fear for her life? Why did she use her still-considerable influence in high places to get Chief superintendent Henry Tibbett of Scotland Yard to join the party as her personal bodyguard? 'The wayward fancies of an elderly woman' - that was the Assistant Commissioner's view, and Henry was inclined to agree.

But his amused skepticism turns to nightmare when Crystal Balaclava literally drops dead at his feet, apparently poisoned - but by a non-existent poison. Was it indeed 'natural causes', as the police doctors and pathologists were forced to conclude? Or was it the perfect murder at last?

Henry, with his professional reputation at stake, determines to find out. But he is involved in a whirlwind trip around the Continent, an encounter with a beautiful woman doctor and a fight for his life before he finds the answer.

Once again Patricia Moyes lives up to her international reputation as a writer who 'puts the who back in whodunit' (Chicago Tribute), and whose name can now be mentioned in the same reverent breath as that of Agatha Christie, or Margery Allingham, or Ngaio Marsh' (Peter Phillips).

'Of all Miss Moyes's stories of Chief Superintendent Henry Tibbett and his wife Emmy, this, for really pretty classic detection, is far and away the best... a device as cunning as any since the great Sayers days of cunning devices.'

- The Times Literary Supplement

'Splendid houseparty murder with lots of suspects, mostly thoroughly unlikeable, plenty of ingenious twists and two really new ways to kill your rich relations. Great fun.'

- Francis Goff, Sunday Telegraph

'A thoroughly agreeable trad whodunit.'

Edmund Crispin, Sunday Times

'Who Saw Her Die? in fact shows Patricia Moyes at her most ingenious; and when original methods of murder are still being madly sought she walks off with a real lollapalooza.'

- Francis Iles, Guardian

'Miss Moyes is right up in the Agatha Christie entertainment class this time.'

- Northern Echo

'She is the only true post-war heir to the great tradition of British women detective story writers.'

- Anthony Lejeune, Tablet

'The most ingenious murder method used in crime-fiction for many years.'

- Birmingham Post

'When Miss Moyes writes a whodunit the question really is who. She is also consistently amusing and reliably entertaining.'

- Sheffield Morning Telegraph

Patricia Pakenham-Walsh, also known as Patricia Moyes (19 January 1923 – 2 August 2000) was a British mystery writer. Her mystery novel s feature C.I.D. Inspector Henry Tibbett. One of them, Who Saw Her Die (Many Deadly Returns in the USA) was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award in 1971. She wrote several juveniles and short stories.

"Penny" Moyes was born in Dublin, Ireland on 19 January 1923, the daughter of Marion ("Molly") Strachan and Ernest Pakenham-Walsh, who had been in the Indian civil service and was a High Court judge in Madras. She was educated at Overstone Girls' School in Northampton and joined the WAAF in 1939. In 1946 Peter Ustinov hired her as technical assistant on his film School for Secrets.

She became his personal assistant for the next eight years. In 1960 she co-wrote the screenplay for the film School for Scoundrels starring Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, and Alastair Sim.

During her next job as an Assistant Editor for London Vogue, Moyes also translated Jean Anouilh’s 1940 play Leocadia as Time Remembered. In London (1955), the major roles were taken by Paul Scofield, Margaret Rutherford, and Mary Ure. The 1957 Broadway production – starring Richard Burton, Helen Hayes, and Susan Strasberg — received several Tony awards. The success of Time Remembered enabled Moyes to leave Vogue and start writing mysteries.

She married photographer John Moyes in 1951; they divorced in 1959. She later married James Haszard, a linguist at the International Monetary Fund in The Hague.

She died at her home on the island of Virgin Gorda (British Virgin Islands) on 2 August 2000, aged 77, from undisclosed causes.

Inspector Henry Tibbett Mysteries

Dead Men Don't Ski (1959)

The Sunken Sailor (1961) - US title: Down Among the Dead Men

Death on the Agenda (1962)

Murder a la Mode (1963)

Falling Star (1964)

Johnny Under Ground (1965)

Murder Fantastical (1967)

Death and the Dutch Uncle (1968)

Who Saw Her Die? (1970) - US title: Many Deadly Returns

Season of Snows and Sins (1971)

The Curious Affair of the Third Dog (1973)

Black Widower (1975)

To Kill a Coconut (1977) - US title: The Coconut Killings

Who Is Simon Warwick? (1978)

Angel Death (1980)

A Six-Letter Word for Death (1983)

Night Ferry to Death (1985)

Black Girl, White Girl (1989)

Twice in a Blue Moon (1993)

Other Books

Time Remembered (play, 1955; translation of Anouilh's Leocadia)

After All, They're Only Cats (1973)

How to Talk to Your Cat (1978)

Who Killed Father Christmas/ And Other Unseasonable Demises (1996; short stories)