2 August 2004.
ISBN: 978-0-7472-6805-5 (PB)
Although Meredith is delighted to see old friend Toby Smythe from the Foreign Office, home on leave from a foreign posting, she is not so certain that his request that Meredith ask her fiancé Detective Superintendent Alan Markby to help with a problem of an old friend of his, will meet with an equal amount of delight. Alan is not that keen on Toby at the best of times.
The friend is his cousin Jeremy Jenner, and the problem is a spate of poison pen letters that have been sent to his wife Alison. The content of the letters refers to a murder of which Alison was acquitted when she was twenty. Although, he feels that the matter should be dealt with by the local police Alan agrees to accept the lunch invitation to Overvale House. Here he and
Alison meets both Jeremy Jenner and his daughter Fiona. Meredith has an odd feeling about Fiona but cannot quite put her finger on it.
When a death occurs it patterns the death of Freda Kemp killed twenty five years ago, and for whose murder Alison was acquitted. Jeremy is adamant that it is the work of the poison pen writer, but there are several surprises in store as Markby and Inspector Jess Campbell investigate the murder, and with Meredith‘s un-requested assistance, seek to uncover the mystery of who killed Freda Kemp twenty years ago.
On a personal front Meredith and Markby have finally decided upon a house, but there is much to do before they can more in. In their quest for garden furniture, recommended by the Jenners, they visit ‘Rusticity’ where they encounter the two owners Ted and Steve. The latter who doesn’t like coppers!
This is Ann Granger at her best, providing
the reader with a mystery that reaches its tentacles back to an episode in the
past. To solve the present murder, we must first solver the older murder. But
the solution remained hidden from me as did the real character behind the mask.
I couldn’t put this down until I had finished it. Highly recommended.
--------
Reviewer: Lizzie Hayes
Earlier books in the series are Say It With Poison, A Season For Murder,
Cold in the Earth, Murder Among Us, Where Old Bones Lie, A Fine Place For
Death, Flowers For His Funeral, A Touch Of Mortality, Candle For a Corpse, Call
the Dead Again, A Word After Dying, Beneath These Stones, Shades of Murder, and
A Restless Evil.
Ann also has a second series featuring Fran Varady, the books are Asking For Trouble, Keeping Bad Company,
Running Scared, Risking it All and Watching Out
Ann Granger was born in Portsmouth
where she was a pupil at the then Northern Grammar School for Girls and went
from there to London University where she achieved a BA in Modern Languages
(French with German). After a period spent first teaching English in France and
then working in the Visa Section of British Embassies around the world. She met
her husband, who was also working for the British Embassy, in Prague, and
together they received postings to places as far apart as Munich and Lusaka.
She is the author of the Mitchell and Markby Mysteries, the Fran Varady series
and more recently the Lizzie Martin mystery series. She lives in Bicester, near
Oxford.
No comments:
Post a Comment