Inspector Alan Markby and his girlfriend, Meredith Mitchell, are in desperate need of a holiday - and a cottage in Parsloe St. John, basking in the heat of an English summer, is an attractive last-minute prospect. Their temporary next door neighbor, retired journalist Wynne Carter, is as convivial as the village itself, and over a glass or two of her blackberry wine she indulges in her latest obsession: speculation about a former resident, Olivia Smeaton, a racy old lady whose life - and accidental death - she believes were ...
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Inspector Alan Markby and his girlfriend, Meredith Mitchell, are in desperate need of a holiday - and a cottage in Parsloe St. John, basking in the heat of an English summer, is an attractive last-minute prospect. Their temporary next door neighbor, retired journalist Wynne Carter, is as convivial as the village itself, and over a glass or two of her blackberry wine she indulges in her latest obsession: speculation about a former resident, Olivia Smeaton, a racy old lady whose life - and accidental death - she believes were not all they seem. Alan Markby is more interested in buying Olivia's lovely Georgian house than in the circumstances of her vacating it - Miss Smeaton's headlong tumble down the stairs seems to him to have been prompted by nothing more than a loose slipper sole. But Meredith is intrigued by Olivia, by the death of her much-loved pony, and by a series of unsettling acts of vandalism. When the body of the local handyman is discovered, this time obviously not an accidental death, her curiosity is proved to have been well-founded. As Meredith and Alan soon realize, Olivia is far from the only enigma Parsloe St. John has to offer - and her death might just be the first of many unless they can make sense of some very secret lives to get at the truth.
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