Red herrings

An ancient country custom goes awry, killing a man and spoiling Bognor's holiday.

At the annual Clout, the men of Herring do as they have done for centuries, firing arrows blindly into the woods and allowing their women to retrieve what they have shot. Nobody ever kills anything, but it's a jolly time nonetheless - until the day when a few of the arrows find their mark, pinning a wayward customs inspector to a tree in a bloody parody of Saint Sebastian. It's rotten luck for the dead man, and not much better for Simon Bognor.

Bognor huffs when he hears of the killing, knowing that he is going to be sucked into investigating the death. A special inspector for the Board of Trade, Bognor is always getting invited to crime scenes, despite knowing almost nothing about crime. His bad lungs, sour attitude, and fleshy physique are out of place in the countryside, but Bognor is in for the duration. He will find the person who caused the accident - or the next arrow's target could be his heart.

Tim Heald (b. 1944) is a journalist and author of mysteries. Born in Dorchester, England, he studied modern history at Oxford before becoming a reporter and columnist for the"Sunday Times". He began writing novels in the early 1970s, starting with "Unbecoming Habits" (1973), which introduced Simon Bognor, a defiantly lazy investigator for the British Board of Trade. Heald followed Bognor through nine more novels, including "Murder at Moose Jaw" (1981) and "Business Unusual"(1989) before taking a two-decade break from the series, which returned in 2011 with "Death in the Opening Chapter".
Heald has further distinguished himself with official biographies of Prince Philip and Princess Margaret, as well as accounts of sporting heroes like cricket legends Denis Compton and Brian Johnston. He is also an experienced public speaker. Heald's forthcoming novel, "Yet Another Death in Venice" (2014), is the latest in the Bognor chronicles.

John Lee has spent 30 years guiding lives and relationships through addiction, recovery, emotional ruin, rage, grief, and desperation, and into new strength, hope, functionality and fulfillment. He wrote the bestseller The Flying Boy, as well as twenty other books, and he has been featured on Oprah, 20/20, Barbara Walter's The View, CNN, PBS, and NPR. He has been interviewed by Newsweek, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and dozens of other national magazines and radio talk shows. John earned his master's degree at the University of Alabama, where he taught English and American Studies. At the University of Texas, he worked on his doctorate and taught Religious Studies and Humanities at Austin Community College. He is founder and former director of the Austin Men's Center where he ran men's groups and sessions for individuals and couples. Along with poet Robert Bly and others, John became a recognized leader in the Men's Movement and an early pioneer in the field of recovery and addictions―he has keynoted hundreds of clinical conferences around the world. He lives in Austin, Texas.