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Everyone's got secrets. But are they worth killing for... ?
The residents of Clerehaven seem to enjoy the picture perfect, English village life. Although the villagers differ in age, history and social status, they all form a cheerful community where friendships are forged and support is given. That is until Jaynie Turner arrives...
Beautiful, vain, and utterly self-absorbed, Jaynie is not the easiest person to make friends with. In fact, most of Clerehaven loathe her. That dislike, however, does not deter Jaynie. Recently divorced, she sets out to build a new life and a role for herself in the village. To do this, she undertakes extensive 'research', digging deep into Clerehaven's history and that of the well-to-do Lynchet family, to whom she claims a tenuous connection.
Unfortunately, Jaynie's so-called 'research' uncovers more than an ordinary family history. And it's not long after that Jaynie's body is discovered. She's been murdered.
Inspector Sheldon Hunter is given the job of tracking down her killer, but it's no easy task. Whilst Jaynie was clearly disliked by her neighbours, it is hard to see that anybody had a motive to kill her.
But as Hunter and his team look further into the affairs of Clerehaven's respectable, middle-class community, they begin to uncover a history that seethes with snobbery, loathing, and fear.
The seemingly idyllic village's past is riddled with lies and suspicious deaths. As Hunter gets closer to the horrific truth at the heart of Clerehaven, he upsets the social status quo in ways that Jaynie Turner could only have dreamed of. But can he overcome the hostility of the local community and prove who killed her?
Death Out of Season is a deftly-written, fast-paced and gripping tale in the very best tradition of English village crime stories. It is also the first of Meg Elizabeth Atkins' books to feature the charismatic Inspector Sheldon Hunter.
Meg Elizabeth Atkins has won many plaudits for her fiction on both sides of the Atlantic, and reviewers have compared her to Elizabeth Bowen and Barbara Pym for the elegance of her writing. In several of her earlier novels, such as Samain, Palimpsest and Tangle, she has explored the disturbing undercurrents beneath the polite surface of English middle-class life, and in Cruel as the Grave forces erupt through the repression and containment of daily existence with violent consequences. Meg Elizabeth Atkins lives with her husband in a North Yorkshire village. She teaches creative writing and her other books include By The North Door, Cruel As The Grave and Samain.
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