Latest News about 'The Sculthorpe Murder'
This is definitely my most complicated mystery to date. Stephen Lavender is being run off his feet trying to track down the killers and untangle the complicated web of deceit than numerous characters have woven into their lives over the years -- and he has plenty of suspects to choose from when the time finally comes to make those arrests.
It will probably be months before 'The Sculthorpe Murder' is published, but if you are desperate to know more about it, here is a brief description to whet your appetite:
Beneath the idyllic beauty of rural Northamptonshire, a vicious crime wave is sweeping the county. When an elderly man is robbed and murdered in sleepy Middleton, the beleaguered magistrates send for help from the Bow Street Police Office in London.
Detective Stephen Lavender and his dependable constable, Ned woods, answer the call but Lavender isn’t convinced that the murder of William Sculthorpe was prompted by greed alone. There’s mystery surrounding the old man and his family and the stench of revenge hangs in the air.
Meanwhile, Woods is struggling with demons of his own. Ghosts from his childhood haunt his nightmares and stalk him through the shadowy streets of Market Harborough and down the isolated towing path of the new canal.
Set against the political – and often violent – background of religious tension between British Catholics and Protestants, in an era where the new canal network was changing the landscape of Middle England for ever, Lavender must peel back the layers of deceit, uncover decades of simmering hatred and mistrust – and somehow haul his loyal constable out of the mire of criminal complicity.
This novel is a fictionalised version of real events.