Second in the Inspector Quantrill mystery series set in an English market town

They make an oddly effective team – Inspector Douglas Quantrill, the old-fashioned country copper; and his deputy, Martin Tait, stuffed with the latest in policing theories and techniques, and with a sharp eye for both the ladies and the main chance. That eye gets wider when Quantrill’s young daughter comes home to recover from a bad break-up, but Tait’s attention soon shifts to Jasmine Woods, a seductive romance-writer. Alison Quantrill may be pretty, but she’s no match for Jasmine’s urbane sophistication.

In a fit of masochism – and hoping, perhaps, that some glamour will rub off – Alison takes a job as Jasmine’s secretary, and thus is the one to find her employer brutally murdered. For the moment, at least, shock shuts Alison’s mouth, but Tait and Quantrill find no shortage of potentially motivated suspects. Jealousy, resentment, white-hot rage … Jasmine Woods, it seems, inspired a lot more than lust among her nearest and dearest.

“Unusually thoughtful and entertaining”

- The New Yorker

“Radley’s characters come fully alive with all their frustrations, fears, and secret longings”

- Publishers Weekly