In the small village of Shenstead, England Colonel James Lockyer-Fox, decorated war hero and ex prisoner of war, mourns the death of his beloved wife. During the funeral, his children ignored him and walked away from him without saying a word to him. This gives rise to rumors that the colonel murdered his wife. After the police question him for two days, the post-mortem proves she died from natural causes and the blood found near her body was that of an animal.

Some of the villagers think he is guilty no matter what the police says and start harassing him by phone, claiming ugly things about his children and the illegitimate granddaughter that was given away at birth. He believes it is his two children who are out of the will that are supplying the neighbors with information that only they should know. He falls into a deep depression that lifts when he is reunited with his granddaughter who gives him a reason to live. What he doesn’t know is at least two people living in the village are willing to go to any lengths to destroy him.

The queen of Gothic, Minette Walters, has written a fascinating tale that explores the nature of true evil; a story that captures the essence of the human condition when confronted with a person so demonic that the rules of acceptable behavior don’t apply. There is no hero in this enthralling melodrama, just an ordinary individual trying to survive the death of a loved one and a feeling of being left behind and all alone with no friends to help him.

Harriet Klausner