Earnshaw's mill is one of the last remnants of Bradfield's glorious industrial past; however times are changing and Earnshaw's future is hanging in the balance. Staff cuts need to be made if the mill is going to survive but the union is unhappy and its members are threatening strike action. With racial tensions already running high throughout the city, the prospect of mass redundancies at the heart of Bradfield's Muslim community could cause even more trouble. The Earnshaw family's problems spiral out of control when they discover that their son Simon has been murdered. As Michael Thackeray's team investigate the death the mill is left teetering on the brink. And as the increasing popular far right political group the British Patriotic Party start campaigning for local elections violence spills on the streets of the city and it isn't long before areas of Bradfield go up in flames.
--This text refers to the
Paperback
edition.
Patricia Hall remembers telling stories to her little sisters when she was six years old, and by the time she was in her early teens she was sure that she was going to be a writer one day. She gained a a degree in English before becoming a journalist and working for The Guardian and the BBC in London, amongst others.
On 1991 her first crime novel, The Poison Pool, was published in London and New York and this was followed by a book a year. Most feature her feisty heroine, reporter Laura Ackroyd and her on-off lover DCI Michael Thackeray. They are set in the decaying industrial towns of West Yorkshire and the nearby countryside of the Yorkshire Dales. In 2011 she launched a new series with Dead Beat, casting a sceptical eye on "Swinging London" in the 1960s. The sequel, Death Trap, will be published in 2012.
Patricia is married and now lives in Oxford. She has two grown up sons and a grand-daughter.
Visit Patricia's web-site at www.patriciahall.co.uk
