Book description
When elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed
only in night clothes and with blood stains on the ground near her body,
the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy, landowning husband,
Colonel James Lockyer-Fox. A coroner's inquest gives a verdict of
'natural causes' but the gossip surrounding him refuses to go away. Why?
Because he's guilty? Or because resentful women in the isolated Dorset
village where he lives rule the roost? Shenstead is a place of too few
people and too many secrets. Why have James and Ailsa cut their children
out of their wills? What happened in the past to create such animosity
within the family? And why is James so desperate to find his
illegitimate grandchild? Friendless and alone, his reclusive behaviour
begins to alarm his London-based solicitor, Mark Ankerton, whose concern
deepens when he discovers that James has become the victim of a
relentless campaign which accuses him of far worse than the death of his
wife. Allegations which he refuses to challenge . . . Why? Because
they're a motive for murder? . . .
Minette Walters is England's bestselling female crime writer. She
has won the CWA John Creasey Award for best first crime novel, the
Edgar Allan Poe Award for best crime novel published in America and
two CWA Gold Daggers for fiction. Minette writes full-time and lives
in Dorset with her husband.
