Fox Evil - Hardcover

Walters, Minette

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1405001097 ISBN 13: 9781405001090

Publisher: Macmillan London Limited, 2002

Synopsis

When elderly Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in her garden, dressed only in nightclothes and with blood stains on the ground near her body, the finger of suspicion points at her wealthy, landowning husband, Colonel James Lockyer-Fox. A coroner's inquest gives a verdict of 'natural causes' but the gossip surrounding him refuses to go away. Why Because he's guilty Or because resentful women in the isolated Dorset village where he lives rule the roost Shenstead is a place of too few people and too many secrets. Friendless and alone, his reclusive behaviour begins to alarm his London-based solicitor, Mark Ankerton, whose alarm deepens when he discovers that James has become the victim of a relentless campaign which accuses him of far worse than the death of his wife. Allegations which he refuses to challenge . . . So begins a bitter war of resentment, and an unlikely alliance between strangers, whose clearer eyes and compassionate natures reveal evil for what it really is . . .

About this title

About the Author:

Minette Walters has well and truly established herself as one of the most exciting crime fiction writers today. Each new book reaches number one on the Australian bestseller lists, and almost all of her previous novels have now been adapted as television dramas. Minette lives in Dorset with her husband and two children.

From Publishers Weekly:

Walters (The Ice House; The Sculptress; Acid Row) is considered by many to be the preeminent crime novelist writing in England today. This psychological thriller, her ninth novel, should satisfy both aficionados of the traditional English cozy and readers who prefer mysteries with a grimmer edge. Walters's dark drama unfolds in the tiny Dorset village of Shenstead, where Col. James Lockyer-Fox's wife, Ailsa, dressed only in flimsy nightclothes and boots, has been found dead on the terrace of Shenstead Manor. A coroner's jury declares James not guilty, but a telephone harassment campaign by unknown persons accuses him not only of the murder but other heinous crimes as well. This unrelenting pressure drives the colonel into a deep and debilitating depression. London solicitor Mark Ankerton steps in to prove his friend James innocent and to clear up the question of just what Ailsa was doing locked out of the house on a freezing night in her underwear and Wellies. His investigation leads him to a nearby group of Travelers-modern-day gypsies who roam the countryside in converted buses-who are squatting on unclaimed land, attempting to seize the property. The Travelers are led by the monstrously evil Fox, whose own agenda is much more complicated than a simple desire for free real estate. Award winner Walters rounds out her novel with several subplots, including confrontations between fox hunters and hunt saboteurs and other small scandals of rural life, all tied in the end to the resolution of the story. The writer's many fans will thoroughly enjoy this hefty, stand-alone mystery, but psychological thriller readers who are more interested in thrills than psychology may find the going a bit too slow and the eventual denouement too complicated by half.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Macmillan London Limited
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1405001097
• ISBN 13: 9781405001090
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1