It has been ten years since Jeanie Long was charged with the murder of fifteen-year-old Abigail Mantel. Now residents of the East Yorkshire village of Elvet are disturbed to hear of new evidence proving Jeanie's innocence. Abigail's killer is still at large. For one young woman, Emma Bennett, the revelation brings back haunting memories of her vibrant best friend - and of that fearful winters day when she had discovered her body lying cold in a ditch. As Inspector Vera Stanhope makes fresh enquiries on the peninsula and villagers are hauled back to a time they hoped to forget, tensions begin to mount.
An ingenious psychological suspense novel. At the isolated Baikie's Cottage on the North Pennines, three very different women come together. Three women who each know the meaning of betrayal...For team leader Rachael the project is the perfect opportunity to rebuild her confidence after a double-betrayal by her lover and boss, Peter Kemp. Botanist Anne, on the other hand, sees it as a chance to indulge in a little deception of her own. And then there is Grace, a strange, uncommunicative young woman with plenty of her own secrets to hide...When Rachael arrives at the cottage, however, she is horrified to discover the body of her friend Bella Furness.
Doug Stanhope's fixing to kill himself. The method is the problem. The way he figures it, if he's going to kill himself, he'd better make a spectacular exit. It's gotta be a good story, or he'll have wasted his biggest punchline. Performing overseas, he did get one particularly ingenious suggestion from a European fan, but when a comedian commits suicide, he sure as hell isn't going out as a hack, doing some other guy's material! And that about sums up Doug Stanhope: he's living life the way he wants to die, surrounded by the kind of fans who will spend precious hours thinking up newer and better ways for the stage veteran to off himself.