Published
by Headline, 13 May 2002. ISBN: 978-0-7472-7472-X (HB )
It was Meredith and Alan are house hunting, but so far cannot seem to
agree on any house, which situation look set to continue when Meredith views
the Vicarage in Lower Stovey. Alan Markby, enthusiastically surveying the large
garden, recalls his visit to the house some twenty years earlier when
investigating his first major case as an Inspector, and one that still rankles
as the rapist dubbed ‘The Potato Man’ was never caught.
When a hiker discovers
some bones in the nearby wood, Alan Markby has a feeling that they could relate
to that earlier case.
Meanwhile, in
an attempt to make some effort to see the Vicarage in a better light, Meredith
returns to Lower Stovey to make another inspection of the house. Being early
for her appointment she pays a visit to the local pub, which does not enhance
her day, and the, still killing time she visits the local church, and there
discovers a body.
Whilst
investigating the murder in the church, the bones found in the wood are dated
as being in the region of twenty years old, and while Alan has a feeling that
the two cases must somehow be related, on the face of it there is nothing to
toe these two cases together.
Ann Granger
is truly brilliant at creating a village atmosphere. Particularly, one which
spans generations. Like most villages a high proportion of the inhabitants are
related dither by kin or marriage. As the story progresses, we learn of the
uneasy relationships between adults who were at school together, the family
secrets, loyalties and unlikely alliances, which all weave together to provide
a fascinating mystery.
This is the fourteenth
book in the series and as with all Ann Granger’s earlier books, I could not put
this one down until I reached the satisfying conclusion. That does not of
course extend to Meredith and Alans’s house hunting. Most highly
recommended.
------ Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett
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.
https://www.anngranger.net/
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