Evidence to Destroy - Hardcover

Yorke, Margaret

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0708918271 ISBN 13: 9780708918272

Publisher: Ulverscroft, 1988

Synopsis

No one suspects that Lydia Cunningham has something to hide, but the arrival of her daughter Thelma with Edward, an unappealing arsonist, unleashes events that reveal in Lydia's past a sordid tale of illegitimacy and murder

About this title

About the Author

Born in Surrey, England, to John and Alison Larminie in 1924, Margaret Yorke (Margaret Beda Nicholson) grew up in Dublin before moving back to England in 1937, where the family settled in Hampshire, although she now lives in a small village in Buckinghamshire. During World War II she saw service in the Women's Royal Naval Service as a driver. In 1945, she married, but it was only to last some ten years, although there were two children; a son and daughter. Her childhood interest in literature was re-enforced by five years living close to Stratford-upon-Avon and she also worked variously as a bookseller and as a librarian in two Oxford Colleges, being the first woman ever to work in that of Christ Church. She is widely travelled and has a particular interest in both Greece and Russia. Her first novel was published in 1957, but it was not until 1970 that she turned her hand to crime writing. There followed a series of five novels featuring Dr. Patrick Grant, an Oxford don and amateur sleuth, who shares her own love of Shakespeare. More crime and mystery was to follow, and she has written some forty three books in all, but the Grant novels were limited to five as, in her own words, 'authors using a series detective are trapped by their series. It stops some of them from expanding as writers'. She is proud of the fact that many of her novels are essentially about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary situations which may threatening, or simply horrific. It is this facet of her writing that ensures a loyal following amongst readers who inevitably identify with some of the characters and recognise conflicts that may occur in everyday life. Indeed, she states that characters are far more important to her than intricate plots and that when writing 'I don't manipulate the characters, they manipulate me'. Critics have noted that she has a 'marvellous use of language' and she has frequently been cited as an equal to P.D. James and Ruth Rendell. She is a past chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and in 1999 was awarded the Cartier Diamond Dagger, having already been honoured with the Martin Beck Award from the Swedish Academy of Detection.

From Publishers Weekly

Yorke's new book equals the best of her nearly 30 well-crafted thrillers involving sudden disturbances in placid English towns. Flighty Thelma Hallows returns home to rural Milton St. Gabriel after her latest failed affair, bringing young Edward Fletcher, whom she picks up on the way. Thelma's widowed mother reluctantly accepts the two, despite her disapproval. With the passing days, Thelma attracts elderly Arthur Morrison who hires her as his housekeeper. When Arthur is killed, the police search for Edward, the obvious suspect as an ex-convict and presumably Thelma's rejected lover. But the situation, deftly built by the author to a tragic climax, reveals a stronger motive for murder. Although Arthur is a good man, he represents disaster to a villager with a shameful secret.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ulverscroft
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0708918271
• ISBN 13: 9780708918272
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 464