Review
Investigative journalist Leonora Staveley retired to Exmoor twenty years ago. From an illustrious career travelling the world she has now become reclusive, preferring life alone with her animals in her cottage on the moors. Worried Sheila Mallory, an old friend, decides to check on her and discovers her ill, cold and living in circumstances that most people would describe as destitute, despite her wealth. Rushed to hospital, Leonora survives only a few days before dying of suspected e-coli, caught from her natural stream - her only water supply. Sheila soon discovers that some people are relieved at Leonora's death and this sets her mind to thoughts of murder. Was it Leonora's brother who wanted her cottage back in order to develop a leisure centre? Was it her neighbours, the Bamfilde brothers, who wanted a share of her stream? Or was it the strange young man seen camping nearby, shortly before her death? Hazel Holt gives Sheila Mallory full rein and looses her inquiring mind to try and solve the murder - if that is what it is. Easy to read, vaguely reminiscent of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, it is an enjoyable gentle crime book set against the beautiful backdrop of Exmoor. - Lucy Watson
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About the Author
Hazel Holt's long association with Barbara Pym led to her becoming Pym's literary executor and her biography of Pym, A Lot to Ask, met with wide critical acclaim. A former television reviewer and feature writer for Stage and Television Today, she now lives in Somerset with her husband and her cat. Her son is the writer Tom Holt.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.