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In 1889, the late Cora Oakley's husband William was put on trial for her murder. The case was dismissed, and Oakley fled the country, never to be heard of again. Over a hundred years later, the only remaining members of the Oakley family are two elderly sisters who, after years of struggling to maintain their dilapidated ancestral home, have decided to sell up. But then Jan, a young Polish man who says he is William Oakley's great-grandson, comes to visit and claims half the profits from the sale of the house. When Jan is found dead, poisoned by the same substance used to kill his great-grandmother, it seems the shadow of murder has returned to haunt the Oakley family again, and Superintendent Markby must look back at the events of a century ago to find the killer. -
Mitchell and Markby No 5. What do you do when you think your ex-lover murdered his wife? That's the question Ursula Gretton, an archaeologist working on an ancient Saxon burial ground on Bamford Hill, puts to Meredith Mitchell in the hope that Meredith's friendship with Cotswold chief inspector Alan Markby might cast some light on her dilemma. To Meredith's irritation, Markby is dismissive of Ursula's suspicions concerning the disappearance of Dan Wollard's wife - that is, until a woman's body is found in the garbage dump near the site Wollard and Ursula have been excavating. The archaeologists aren't the only ones disturbing the peace of the remote windswept hill. Much to the fury of the local landowners, the taciturn and truculent Felstons, a band of New Age hippies has set up camp on the hill, only to disappear at dawn the day after the discovery of the body. Markby is faced with a tangle of conflicting clues, suspects and possible witnesses - including Meredith Mitchell herself. And when a second body is found it is clear the web is growing ever more complex - and destructive. Cover art by David Hopkins.
