Synopses & Reviews
With this stunning debut--a marvelous marriage of classic convention and contemporary sophistication--Minette Walters sets a new standard of excellence for the mystery novel.
The three women living in seclusion at an elegant Hampshire country house have long been fodder for village gossip...even whispers of a witches' coven. So when a faceless corpse of uncertain vintage is found in the Streech Grange ice house, Chief Inspector Walsh can't wait to make a case of it.
Lady of the manor Phoebe Maybury, still haunted by Walsh's relentless investigation of her husband's strange disappearance ten years ago, is calm. She and her two housemates--sensitive, charming artist Diana Goode and pretty, earthy Anne Cattrell--seem as puzzled as the police. But do they have something to hide?
While Walsh strives to nail Phoebe for murder, sexy young Detective Sergeant McLoughlin turns his attention to the exasperating and magnetic Anne. Soon his inquiry and his impulses will draw him into a tangled thicket of love, loyalty, and deadly intrigue.
Review
"Unholy passions seethe inches beneath a proper surface: a brutal, literate debut."--
Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Splendid . . . an extraordinary debut."--St. Petersburg Times
"A stylish, nontraditional mystery in which ambiguity abounds."--The New York Times Book Review
"Electrifying."--Rocky Mountain News
"[A] zinger of a debut . . . Walters skillfully brings together the relationships between the women and the policemen into a complicated but believable puzzle, which she solves with panache."--Publishers Weekly
Review
"Splendid...a rich, dark drama...an extraordinary debut."--
St. Petersburg Times
Synopsis
Winner of the CWA John Creasey/New Blood Dagger Award
It's been ten years since Phoebe Marbury's husband disappeared from their country manor, Streech Grange, when one afternoon her gardener discovers a decomposed body in the ice house. Now in her mid-thirties, Phoebe shares the manor with two unmarried friends, and the rumors in the village suggest they're up to something--witchcraft, lesbianism, child abuse. Chief Inspector Walsh is eager to find out for himself when he's called to investigate the body. What he discovers is a faceless, contorted corpse and three women who have no interest in helping out the police, and clearly know something they're not telling him.
Minette Walters's first novel gives a raw, contemporary spin to a classic mystery convention, and the result is "splendid . . . an extraordinary debut" (St. Petersburg Times).
About the Author
Minette Walters is the author of many suspense novels and the winner of the Crime Writers' Association Gold Dagger Award, the Edgar Allan Poe Award, and the CWA John Creasey/New Blood Dagger Award, among others. Her work has been translated into twenty-six languages. She lives with her husband in Dorset, England.