Mask Of Innocence

As Richard Patton, an ex-Detective Inspector enjoying early retirement, well knows, the reading of a will can arouse strong passions.

When he and his wife Amelia escort their friend, Mary Pinson, to Penhavon Park to hear the reading of the will of Mary’s former master, Sir Rowland Searle, it proves to be a suitably dramatic event.

Rowland’s estate has been split up unevenly between the Searle children - and tensions within the family start to rise.

Richard Patton is sceptical of the all too simple explanation for Sir Rowland’s sudden death.

He starts to suspect there is much more to the Searle family history then Mary has been letting on.

When he stumbles upon the body of Mary’s brother, he resolves to investigate the many mysteries that have remained in the shadows at Penhavon Park for decades.

The household descended into anarchy and adultery years ago, and Mary and the Searles look desperately to Patton for answers.

Tirelessly turning over the questions in his mind, Patton is determined to tear off the Mask of Innocence and provide them…

'Mask of Innocence' is an expertly plotted crime thriller that will keep readers guessing to the last page.

Praise for Roger Ormerod:

‘The story gallops along with an irresistible momentum...always fascinating...the shape is near perfect. The characterisation is splendid, the situations dramatic and compelling, the style economic and energetic. What more can a book offer, or a reader ask?’ - Reginald Hill

"Eclectic, underrated Ormerod can be relied upon to come up with the startling goods" Sunday Times

"I am glad to announce that the detective novel is still alive and well in Mr Ormerod's skillful hands " The Spectator,

"Fast-moving, with well-orchestrated jiggery-pokery; not unlike an early Dick Francis in tone and method” Times Literary Supplement

Roger Ormerod (1920-2005) was a prolific writer of ingenious and densely plotted crime novels - some 35 in all - which were published in the UK and the USA. He lived in Wolverhampton and amongst other things worked as a civil servant and as a Social Security inspector – backgrounds which he made full use of in his fiction, as he did with his hobbies of painting and photography. His novels include ‘Full Fury’, ‘A Death to Remember’ and ‘The Night She Died’.

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