We all know the basics of punctuation--or do we? In "Eats, Shoots & Leaves," Truss dares to say, in her delightfully witty way, that it is time to institute a zero tolerance approach to punctuation.

"In the wake of two extremely high-profile murder cases, and with the summer of 1957 finally winding down, Constable Twitten is eagerly anticipating a quiet spell at work. But his hoped-for rest is interrupted when he and his colleagues find a trio of bodies, all murdered with the same unusual weapon: a milk bottle. The three victims are seemingly unconnected--a hardworking patrolman, a would-be beauty queen, and a catty BBC radio personality--so...

An evaluation of the way discourteous behavior has become commonplace and even applauded in today's society is a humorous call to arms that challenges ill manners and the practices that support them.

Constable Twitten investigates the death of a famed theater critic who was murdered before he could deliver information about an unsolved crime. "It's 1957, and the famed theater critic A. S. Crystal has come to the British seaside resort of Brighton with something other than the production of A shilling in the Meter on his mind. Sitting in the Brighton Theatre Royal with Constable Twitten, Crystal intends to tell the detective the secret he knows...

The queen of zero tolerance takes on the sorry state of modern manners in Talk to the hand. Making the cat laugh is a collection of columns about single life.