1994 mystery. Frances and Malcolm Chance have retired to a small
village. Their neighbour is murdered, and all the secrets start to
come out.
Everyone has a secret of course, and unlike the situation in
lazier detective stories some of them even have more than one. There's
a fairly obvious bit of business with a disguise, and perhaps people
are just a bit too ready to spill their inmost secrets to Frances
without actually knowing her very well, but I rather liked the shape
of the story and the way in which possibilities were gradually closed
down to leave just one possible solution.
There's a large cast and perhaps not as much characterisation as one
might like, but I found everyone basically plausible, even if some of
them descend into stereotype.
This is one of Ferrars' last books and it's lovely to see that she was
still developing as a writer rather than falling back on the old
tricks.
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