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‘Andrew Taylor is a master story-teller’ Daily Telegraph
From the No.1 bestselling author of The Ashes of London and The Fire Court, this is the fourth instalment in the acclaimed Lydmouth series
The Korean war rumbles in the background throughout this novel as a reporter is found murdered at the Bathurst Arms, squatters are evicted from a military camp and there are new developments in the three-year-old hunt for a missing teenager. And in spite of all that’s going on, Jill Francis, a local journalist, and DI Richard Thornhill find they can no longer resist their feelings for each other.
‘An excellent writer. He plots with care and intelligence and the solution to the mystery is satisfyingly chilling‘ The Times
‘The most under-rated crime writer in Britain today’ Val McDermid
‘There is no denying Taylor’s talent, his prose exudes a quality uncommon among his contemporaries’ Time Out
From the No.1 bestselling author of The Ashes of London and The Fire Court, this is the fourth instalment in the acclaimed Lydmouth series
The Korean war rumbles in the background throughout this novel as a reporter is found murdered at the Bathurst Arms, squatters are evicted from a military camp and there are new developments in the three-year-old hunt for a missing teenager. And in spite of all that’s going on, Jill Francis, a local journalist, and DI Richard Thornhill find they can no longer resist their feelings for each other.
‘An excellent writer. He plots with care and intelligence and the solution to the mystery is satisfyingly chilling‘ The Times
‘The most under-rated crime writer in Britain today’ Val McDermid
‘There is no denying Taylor’s talent, his prose exudes a quality uncommon among his contemporaries’ Time Out
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Reviews
'The latest of Andrew Taylor's Lydmouth series of books, in which he has so effectively created the atmosphere of the 1950s...as usual with Taylor's stories, there is more to the puzzle than is immediately apparent. It's another satisfying read, in which the characters are as importants as the events and tension develops naturally, without contrivance' - Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph
Taylor is an excellent writer
'Marvellously creepy' Frances Fyfield, Mail on Sunday
How skilfully he recreates the atmosphere of the time through innuendo, attitude and detail rather than dogged description... Taylor is the master of small lives writ large and, in the phrase coined in this era of surly pubs and poor food, he has carved a classic detective story which is deceptively calm and cool, but really smashing
Marvellously creepy
'Andrew Taylor does not fall into the trap of mistaking drama for melodrama. Nor does he suffer from the insecure urge to say too much. Understatement is the rule of his Lydmouth novels, set in the Fifties and evoking the post-war restraint of that era without allowing anyone to notice quite how skilfully he re-creates the atmosphere of the time through innuendo, attitude and detail rather than dogged description... Taylor is the master of the small lives writ large and, in the phrase coined in this era of surly pubs and poor food, he has carved a detective story whch is deceptively calm and cool, but really smashing' Frances Fyfield, The Express
'The latest of Andrew Taylor's Lydmouth series of books, in which he has so effectively created the atmosphere of the 1950s, with its genteel drabness and carefully preserved hierarchy of relationships . . . Is another satisfying read, in which the characters are as important as the events and tension develops naturally without contrivance.
'Excellent classic mystery set in early 1950s Lydmouth' - The Guardian
'All the ingredients of a classic murder mystery...an excellent whodunnit that keeps you guessing right until the end' - Yorkshire Evening Post