The shabby house at the end of a terrace of equally run-down houses, was beyond saving by the time the fire brigade arrived. With flames shooting sky high, the screams from a neighbour that there were two young Polish children in the house struck the knot of on-lookers with horror, as they watched the roof cave-in.
For Detective Superintendent Gil Mayo, it looks like a long night waiting for the fire brigade to conduct their gruesome search before he can establish if he has a case on his hands. From the neighbours the police learn that the house is being rented by a Polish man and his two children. The discovery of the body of a man, signs of arson and forensic evidence of foul play, and. Gil Mayo sets his young ambitions Inspector Abigail Moon to investigate. But where are the young children?
Recently returned to the area, Inspector Martin Kite is investigating the brutal attack on the elderly wife of Vicar Edgar Haldane. Cecily is in a coma, there are no signs of burglary, but clear signs that Cecily Haldane had been entertaining at the time of her attack.
This is a complex story, which has its roots in the second world war. As the story progresses, seemingly unrelated incidents become linked, and the tenuous strands as they are pulled together provide a rich and absorbing story.
Running along side the complicated relationships of Edgar Haldane and his children is the relationship between Gil Mayo and Alex Jones his partner. This is the twelfth in the Gil Mayo series, but the first I have read. A situation I intend to remedy.
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Lizzie Hayes
June 2000