Garland for a Dead Maiden

Millicent Pluke, the devoted wife of Detective Inspector Montague Pluke, stumbles across a woman's body by Devil's Dump, a pool in a remote North Yorkshire moorland stream. Her discovery means Pluke must steel himself not to hunt forgotten horse troughs - the passion of his life - but instead to track down a murderer. As his enquiries intensify, Pluke suspects the ruined Trough House may provide important clues but when he discovers the body has previously been buried but flushed from its well-hidden grave by the ferocious St Margaret's Day flood, his knowledge of moorland folklore becomes vital to the investigation. A maiden's garland was discovered with the body, but why would a murderer take the time and trouble to bury the garland - a symbol of purity - with the victim Pluke's research unearths that others have also died in Devil's Dump - in 1821 a shepherd name Featherstone drowned in its depths and again, in 1872 another tragedy occurred in the waters; another Featherstone, but this time the victim was a six year old girl who was later buried with a maiden's garland. And now Susan Featherstone has gone missing from the dale - and she is an agent for an artist who always depicts a shepherd in her paintings of the moors. But the artist too has gone missing, so is Susan victim - or killer

Nicholas Rhea is the pseudonym of Peter N. Walker. He served for thirty years in the North Yorkshire police and retired in 1982 with the rank of Inspector to concentrate on his writing. He has published over one hundred books, including the 'Constable' series from which the highly popular ITV series, Heartbeat, has been derived. He has also written several Emmerdale books based on the successful Yorkshire television series as well as crime novels, collections of folk stories and non-fiction books about Yorkshire.