Ellen Barksdale was born in the English seaside resort of Brighton, where her parents ran a small boarding house. Her first experience of crime fiction was with the Maigret novels by Georges Simenon (her mother is Belgian by birth). After years of reading crime fiction, she recently decided to take up writing herself. "Tea? Coffee? Murder!" is her first mystery series. Ellen Barksdale lives near Swansea with her partner Ian and their three dogs Billy, Bobby and Libby.

Late revenge on Louise! The cook at the Black Feather inherits five painted portraits and is faced with a mystery: all the portraits show Dr Desmond van Gelder - a criminal she put behind bars as a young agent. Louise is horrified when she realises that van Gelder is now free - and that he has taken a hostage! She has just ten days to decipher the riddles hidden in the portraits and save the young woman he is holding captive...

About the series: There was nothing in the will about this ...

Cottages, English roses and rolling hills: that's Earlsraven. In the middle of it all: the "Black Feather". Not only does young Nathalie Ames unexpectedly inherit this cosy inn from her aunt, she also falls heir to her aunt's secret double life! She solved criminal cases together with her cook Louise, a former agent of the British Crown. And while Nathalie is still trying to warm up to the quirky villagers, she discovers that sleuthing runs in the family.