When an inebriated female arrives at the local nick covered in blood and claiming to have murdered her husband, it soon becomes clear that this is no open-and-shut case for Elmhurst’s CID and for DI Rafferty in particular. He and DS Dafyd Llewellyn have a tricky case on their hands when they discover that the woman, beautiful Felicity Raine, was not drunk but drugged, as was her murdered husband Raymond, the senior partner in a successful family fashion firm. Although she later retracts her confession, the police are not convinced and she is charged with the crime.
Rafferty regards her confession as suspect from the start and all sorts of puzzling questions arise with other members of the firm who appear to be less than honest about their activities. Felicity’s neighbour, as well as a close female friend, are ready to swear that the late Raymond was a wife-beater, a claim hotly disputed by his imperious mother, Stephanie Raine, who clearly has no time for Felicity. The investigation becomes even more complicated when doubts arise as to whether the late Raymond really was Stephanie’s son - thus making her blind devotion to him rather suspect.
Felicity is swiftly cast in the sympathetic role of the down-trodden wife but Rafferty, although at first sympathetic, begins to unearth surprising new facts with the aid of the astute DS Llewellyn. The plot basically revolves around who will inherit the family wealth and whether or not Raymond was murdered by his beautiful wife, or by someone trying to frame her for the crime. It moves at a fast pace with the author creating a complex web of deceit and mystery and a clever mix of characters, all of whom are totally believable.
As always, Rafferty and Llewellyn make an excellent team and this cleverly-plotted novel is full of twists and turns with plenty of humour. The likeable Rafferty once again has to cope with problems in his love life with his live-in partner Abra but all is happily resolved at the end. There are surprises aplenty and the ending, a challenge to all whodunit fans, is completely convincing.
This is another page-turner from Geraldine Evans and is crime writing at its
best. A must for all lovers of the genre.
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Edna Jones
This is the eighth in the Rafferty and Llewellyn series, which goes back to
Dead Before Morning in 1993. Geraldine Evans has also published the first
of the Catt and Casey series - Up in Flames (2004).