Desolate Places

"For lovers of British mystery, you can't top KC to shine a humane yet revealing light on crime, faith, family, love and human frailty in her compelling mysteries. Highly recommended!"-Deborah Crombie, New York Times bestselling author

With a wedding on the way, and her demanding job as a curate in an affluent London parish, Callie Anson has enough on her plate to keep her busy. But she soon finds herself called to minister to a segment of her parish that she barely knew existed: the virtually invisible people - most of them foreign, some of them illegal - working in difficult conditions, for inadequate pay, in downmarket tourist hotels. How can she square her ordination vows to be a servant to the most vulnerable with her desire to be honest with her fiancé, policeman Mark Lombardi?

Detective Inspector Neville Stewart is torn between the needs of his pregnant wife and the demands of his job when he is made Senior Investigating Officer on the case of a woman found dead in one of the tourist hotels. The death itself is not surprising, but the victim is. What was well-to-do Felicity Chapman doing in the Regent Hotel? Before Neville can get to the bottom of it, another death shakes him to the core.

Kate Charles was born in the US but has lived in England for many years. Her novels are set - mostly - against the colourful background of the Church of England. She is a former Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association and the Barbara Pym Society, and a member of the prestigious Detection Club.