AustLit

'Emma Parson’s invitation to thoroughly spoilt Willow Darling’s birthday party was very specific.  DRESS FORMAL  Emma has only one problem with this, and it’s a big one.  Her mother cannot afford to buy her the dress she has set her heart on.  With only four days to go before the party, Emma has to act fast.'

'Somehow she has to find the money she needs.

'Emma has no option, she has to get a job, and the Wanted Urgently Situations Vacant card in a newsagent’s window is the answer to her predicament.  Fortunately, she has the required qualifications for walking a much-loved pet dog named Algernon and, after giving it much thought, she makes this absolutely clear when she sits down and composes the reference she must supply.

'Emma finds herself in a very sticky situation when she attends her job interview with Algernon’s three owners at their very strange cottage in Witchypool Lane.  The first obstacle she has to overcome is Algernon.  He isn’t a pet dog.  The second, his owners – three, even stranger, very old ladies – are witches, who don’t like children and can’t be trusted.

'EMMA IS WARNED.

'BEWARE, TAKE CARE!'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Could this, finally, be the showdown between the two powerful East End gang bosses – Krait Beaney and Johnnie “the Boot” Swann?  Nothing could be sweeter.  Or so Johnnie thinks.  He’s got it all set up and, at long last, pictures himself in full control of all large scale criminal activity in the East End of London.  But, as has proved to be the case before, there is just one problem.  Family.  Frank Garibaldi, Johnnie’s son, who is wanted in the UK for the rape and murder of Star Cleary’s kennel maid and who was shipped out to Spain by his father, safely out of the reach of the law.  Permanently, Johnnie thought, but as so often has turned out for him in the past, if there’s a starting point where everything shows definite promise of going wrong for him, directly or indirectly, it can once again be laid at the door of a member of his family.'

'Star Cleary, manager of the Nine-to-five Shelter for its owner and benefactor. Krait Beaney, finds herself with a choice she vowed she would never make and is forced to face when her husband, DS Vincent Black, becomes obsessed with finding the hitman who was hired by Johnnie Swann to shoot and kill Mary O’Reilly.  Mary, who once managed the shelter with Star’s help, was in the wrong place at the wrong time and knew too much about what happened the night it was torched by Johnnie.

'Star makes the choice she was determined never to make, crossing the line into the East End gangsters’ world and, in so doing, places her own life in jeopardy when a sequence of totally unexpected events places her once again in the frame for murder.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'It was a particularly savage murder and all the more shocking as the victim, Leslie Hepworth, was a teenager and furthermore because he and his parents were virtual  newcomers to Little Gidding. The villagers themselves had never encountered anything like it before. The real problem was that everyone knew that the killer was one of them. Leslie was arrogant, did what he pleased and cared nothing for the distress caused  by his outrageous behaviour.

'It became an impossible task for the police. Too many people had a motive for  killing Leslie. Many more were suspected of having been targeted by him, but for their own personal reasons had kept silent.

'Doubt and suspicion spreads like wildfire and quickly takes hold with the inevitable result that Little Gidding becomes a village on trial. With the murder enquiry at a standstill, the villagers take matters into their own hands. A petition is presented to the police, insisting that the clairvoyant Edwina Charles, is requested to assist them with their enquiries, but Mrs Charles refuses to become involved. For her, the whole issue is too close to home. And then matters take an even darker turn. One of the three teenagers who had hero-worshipped Leslie disappears while delivering a blackmail note to the person all three of them consider they have good reason to believe murdered Leslie.

'A battle of wills ensues. Will the clairvoyant revise her decision and assist the police with their further enquiries into what now shows every sign of proving to be another murder, or will she stand by her word and refuse to involve herself in any way?

'The stakes are high, and no one knows this better than Edwina Charles…'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Star Cleary wasn’t the only one who failed to foresee the shadow that, for years, had been stealthily darkening every footstep she took, or to even suspect that now, the time was right to reveal itself and turn her life upside-down. Like an octopus lurking in deep, dark waters, its tentacles reach out and indelibly touch and irreversibly alter the lives of those, not only closest to her, but also of everyone around her. The two East End warring crime bosses, Krait Beaney and Johnnie “the Boot” Swann, are no exceptions. Not even the Nine-to-Five Shelter escapes from the ever-widening shadow that is cast, like a thick blanket, over all of their lives.'

'Initially, Johnnie sees the shadow in a quite different light, believing it to be an opportunity he might never get again to take out his hated rivals, the Beaney brothers. Krait Beaney sees what is coming from Johnnie, but is waiting for him, unfazed by the threat that overhangs his business empire and also threatens his reputation as a feared crime lord.

'Krait’s brother, Knuckles, sees things quite differently…

'‘You ain’t gonna call Johnnie’s bluff forever, Krait. There’s gonna come that one time when he comes out on top and crushes us.’

'And Krait’s reply…

'‘This isn’t it. And I’m surprised you can’t see it. We know too much.’

'But do they?

'Do any of them realise or even sense the impact the shadow that hangs over all of them is going to have on their lives?

'Those who don’t heed its threat and tread carefully around it pay the ultimate price. With their lives…'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Amber Rojano, a beautiful young Romany gypsy, loved to dance, and it would be fair to say that this is what cost her her life, even though her body was never discovered.'

'Some years after her mysterious disappearance, Amber’s physically abusive, universally disliked partner, Adam Newton, made an appeal against his conviction for her murder. Finally acquitted of the crime on a technicality, he approaches Edwina Charles, the clairvoyant, asking her to assist him with a reading of the tarot cards to prove beyond all doubt that he had no direct hand in Amber’s disappearance. Despite her belief in his innocence, Mrs Charles refuses to help him.. Mrs Charles has conflicting interests in the matter. Gypsy Luke Rojano, Amber’s grandfather, is a friend, and Luke is determined to make Newton pay for the crime which, with the exception of Mrs Charles, no one doubts Newton committed.

'And then events take a dramatic turn. A female skeleton is unearthed on Hell’s Acre which was once the travellers’ camp site where Amber was born and spent her early childhood years and which is now owned by the clairvoyant’s brother. Newton’s arrest following this discovery changes everything. Mrs Charles is now involved in the disappearance of Amber Rojano far more heavily than she would ever have imagined. Her belief in Newton’s innocence of the murder of Amber, however, is undiminished, all the more so when the remains of the skeleton give up only more questions to be answered, including those she finds herself faced with following the discovery of the body of a complete stranger, known only as Elena Butterly, in the wood at the bottom of her garden.

'It is the most complex case the clairvoyant has ever undertaken and for the most part, she is obliged to investigate it entirely on her own. Ex-Detective Chief Superintendent David Sayer, who has worked in partnership with her in the past on various problematical cases undertaken by her, shares the opinion of everyone else. Adam Newton is and was guilty of the murder of Amber Rojano. But was he? That is the task Mrs Charles sets for herself, the answer to which lies in her reading of the tarot for Adam Newton with its shocking consequences for all concerned.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'This is it, payback, and Johnnie “the Boot” Swann, boss of the East End Swann gang, has a master plan for taking out his rivals, the Beaney brothers and with them, Star Cleary, and it isn’t going to be with all guns blazing. It all looks good for Johnnie, but then what goes round, comes round. Johnnie would have done well to remember this and been ready to expect the unexpected. No one could say he wasn’t warned.

'The story of the Nine-to-Five Shelter continues in BAD book #4, scheduled to be published in 2016. The unexpected for Johnnie doesn’t end with BAD FELLAS. And he isn’t the only one to be caught up in what is to come. It is a bolt from the blue, and something neither he nor the Beaney brothers and in particular, Star Cleary, would have ever considered possible.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'GONE BAD continues the story from BAD APPLE, an East End gangster thriller, of Star Cleary, Mary, who manages the Nine-to-Five Shelter with Star’s help, and the gang war between the Beaneys, who are rumoured to finance the shelter, and the Swann gang… A war that escalates out of control with devastating consequences for all concerned.'

'Star Cleary’s life, following the death of her beloved father, becomes a nightmare. As far as the police are concerned, she is still in the frame for the murder of Lily Henderson, and worse is to come. She is being blackmailed by Shaun Sawle, the contact man who set up the Henderson hit. Sawle has arranged another hit. Big money is at stake and Star finds herself with no alternative but to take on the contract. Further pressure is brought to bear on Star by her selfishly self-centred mother, Stephanie, this time in the form of emotional blackmail.

'Be careful what you wish for, it is said. Star would know better than to wish for anything, although Mary might have been tempted to make this mistake when her feckless Irish nephew, Brian, who is on the run from the Garda, suddenly turns up on the shelter’s front doorstep, seeking refuge. He and Mary share a secret so terrible that Mary’s life ultimately hangs in the balance, and it is on the strength of this shared secret that Brian blackmails his aunt to get him a job with Krait Beaney, the boss of the Beaney gang… Something Brian wished for, but would have done better to think through first, and was later to regret.

'Vicky Swann and her daughter, Libby, don’t just make the mistake of wishing for something, they take the steps necessary to ensure that they get it by arranging for Johnnie “the Boot” Swann, to be murdered while he and Vicky are on their honeymoon in the Caribbean. Libby Swann takes over the Swann gang from her father, and then sets about making a catalogue of mistakes, not least of which is thinking that she is Krait Beaney’s equal and that by bringing pressure to bear, he will agree to a merger between the two gangs.

'The East End Nine-to-Five Shelter story isn’t going to end there. There will be more to come of the shelter, Star and the detective from the Met, who loves her and tries to protect her, and the ever-increasing hostilities between the Beaney and Swann gangs. It is going to get messy!'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Someone once said that most of us lead boring lives. Not so Ernie Sloggit, and you had better believe it. When it comes to talking himself out of trouble, no one is better at it. He is a ne’er-do-well serial fantasist and no one in his or her right mind should ever believe a word he says. There can be only one positive about Ernie Sloggit. A wily and clever opportunist, no secret can ever be kept safe from him.

'No one knows him better than his daughter, Berenice Romano, who has lived with his Walter Mitty fantasies all of her life. His latest bizarre fantasy that he is being stalked by a professional hitwoman convinces Berenice that he is suffering from senile dementia. Ernie, however, is just one of her problems. Her own personal life is falling apart. She is convinced that her ex-husband, Mario, is planning on abducting their daughter and taking her with him to Italy to live with his family, and she is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the questionable demands that are being made upon her by her employer, the world-renowned spirit medium, Dolly Wakeham, in the run-up to Dolly’s nationwide tour of all the big cities.

'Berenice’s growing suspicion that a woman named Mary O’Hara is stalking both her and her father, does not improve matters. Berenice is convinced that Mario has hired Mary to gather evidence to prove that she, Berenice, is an unfit mother: Ernie – for once, not without with good reason – is insistent that Mary is a professional assassin and that he is her target.

'Father and daughter are both right and wrong about Mary. Ernie is definitely being stalked, but not by Mary, whose target is much bigger and far more important than either Berenice or her father who are mere pawns in her deadly game.

'There is only one thing that everybody has got right about Mary when inevitably all paths eventually cross. She is on a fanatical mission, with never the slightest possibility of her failing to make her ‘hit’, a hit that will change the course of all their lives.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'The private prayers of thanks Roberta Palmer’s lover, Nicky Kalinicos, and her closest friend, Paula, privately offer up following the bizarre death of Roberta’s mother, Zena, are quickly supplanted by their fears for Roberta’s sanity and safety when Roberta agrees with her solicitor to spend one final weekend at Galloway, her mother’s Bedfordshire country home. Roberta knows that she should stay well away from Galloway and the terrible secret it holds, which ultimately destroyed her mother, but a decision has to be made about her late mother’s housekeeper and confidante, Carmel Knox, who is threatening to sell a warts-and-all exposé of Zena’s hedonistic lifestyle to the highest tabloid newspaper bidder.

'There is, however, a measure of comfort for Paula when Roberta invites her to accompany her to Galloway, even though the same invitation is extended to Marilyn Harper, who is employed at Roberta’s London Docklands art gallery as her personal assistant. Paula jealously perceives Marilyn as a threat to her own relationship with Roberta. She senses instinctively that Marilyn is somehow going to be Roberta’s downfall. Particularly since Chaz Pockett, presenter of “Pockett Watch” – a day-time consumers’ rights TV programme – who was investigating an art scam in which Roberta’s gallery was believed to be heavily involved, finds himself falling in love with Marilyn.

'The first step in the realization of Paula’s worst fears is taken when the body of the man whom Marilyn claims she saw “stalking” Roberta in London’s West End, is discovered in Galloway’s woodland. From that point on, there is no turning back for Marilyn, who naïvely aids and abets the ugly dark forces within Galloway which reach out from Zena’s past and threaten not only Roberta’s life, but also Marilyn’s in a terrifying climax both for them and for Paula when the threat, with its horrifying revelation and totally unexpected turnaround, finally becomes a deadly reality. Having steadfastly rejected Chaz Pockett’s advances, both personally and professionally, it is nonetheless to Chaz that Marilyn now turns, and to whom, ultimately, she owes her life when Galloway’s terrible secret threatens to tear her down, too.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Never get personally involved… Something Chick Fowler, an investigative journalist, has never had a problem with before. But then a series of articles on the spread of Satanism throughout the middle-classes was a first for him, too. It brought him into contact with the Herberts, whose daughter, Cathy – according to her father, Jack – was sold into white slavery by Satanists… Or worse, ritually sacrificed by them at the most depraved of all of their Satanic rituals, a Black Sabbat. And now Jack Herbert won’t let go. Hunting down and unmasking the key members of the sinister Satanic Cult of Seth has become an obsession with him.

'The regular reports of the cult’s activities, which Jack sends off to Fowler, all fetch up the same way – unread and in the dustbin. Phone messages and calls at Fowler’s home by Jack are determinedly ignored by the journalist. Desperate now, Jack tries a new tack. He calls at the home of Fowler’s mother and Fowler’s sister, Rosalind, hoping to enlist their aid in persuading Fowler to assist him in his crusade against the Cult of Seth and Satanism.

'Rosalind feels sorry for Jack, and when she learns that Jack is dead, she decides that if her brother won’t do something and investigate the Cult of Seth, she will. Rosalind has no idea that in so doing, her life will immediately become forfeit. Basilio, the Lopinot dollmaker, who has the power to invade people’s minds while they sleep and then take control of them, has been ordered by the cult to use his powerful voodoo magic to make a killing doll. Rosalind’s death at the hands of the dollmaker will be the cult’s warning to Fowler not to get involved.

'But then matters take a much darker turn. The cult’s leader, the Living God Seth, suddenly calls Basilio off. Rosalind, a virgin, is to be ritually sacrificed by Seth instead at a celebration of that foulest of all obscenities, a Black Sabbat.

'It becomes a race against time for Fowler, with every minute becoming more terrifyingly dangerous for all concerned.

'And now the day of reckoning… Fowler’s worst nightmare is about to begin, and no one will walk away from the night of the Black Sabbat untouched by it.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Star Cleary – young, beautiful, but with a deeply troubled past – assists the late middle-aged woman known as Mother Mary at the East End Nine-to-Five Shelter for the homeless. The shelter is rumoured to be funded by Krait Beaney, the head of the feared London Beaney gang, who is definitely both a friend and minder of both Star and Mary.'

'Through a bizarre twist of fate, Star, while on an errand for Mary, helps an old woman who has been brutally attacked in the street. A day or two later, the same old woman is found murdered in her home and having been given a gift by the old woman for having helped her, Star finds herself placed ‘in the frame’ by the police for her murder.

'Ever present is the escalating war between the two rival London gangs, the Beaney brothers and Johnnie “the Boot” Swann when Johnnie, in revenge for his having been disrespected by Krait, orders the savage murder of Stick Beaney, the Beaneys’ baby brother, who is both slightly physically and mentally handicapped.

'Never test a gangster’s family honour.

'It was no mistake that Krait Beaney was named after a deadly black Indian snake. Put one foot wrong where his family is concerned and he will strike out. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow nor the day thereafter, but strike out he will. And with deadly intent. Something Johnnie Swann was going to learn the hard way.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Everyone was agreed. The clairvoyant, Edwina Charles, not only had the perfect motive for murder, she was also in the right place at the right time to commit the crime. Her alleged victim, the wealthy celebrity clairvoyant, Angela Castle – whom some might say was Edwina Charles’s protégée – had cheated on her, stolen her clients and to add insult to injury, invited her to take part in a television debate on clairvoyance during which Angela and the programme’s presenter, Mark Devereux, ridiculed her.'

'For the first time, Mrs Charles is at a complete loss. Her powers of perception as a clairvoyant and her ingenuity are tested to the limit as she seeks for the answers that she must find to clear her name.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Jennifer’s husband, Adrian, is dead, his totally unexpected legacy an eight-year-old child by the mistress Jennifer knows nothing of until she sees the woman lying dead on a French mortuary slab alongside Adrian’s body.'

'Deeply shocked and bewildered, Jennifer returns to England with the profoundly distressed child, Nicole. She is determined that Adrian’s parents should be made to accept responsibility for raising Nicole.'

'With all of this on her mind, Jennifer would scarcely have been aware of the horrific murder of a young prostitute, Baby Roach, by the man known as the Butcher Bird. Except for the fact that Jennifer knows the killer. The Butcher Bird belongs in her own secret past.'

'Jennifer’s life becomes a terrifying, never-ending nightmare when Nicole is abducted and she finds herself being stalked relentlessly by both the hard-nosed detective responsible for nailing the Butcher Bird for a series of earlier sex crimes, and Baby Roach’s vicious gay lover, Big Jan, who is determined to prevent Jennifer from interfering with her obsessive plan to kill the Butcher Bird for what he did to Baby.'

'Fleeing for her life, and with no one to turn to for help, Jennifer frantically pursues Nicole’s abductors before the child disappears forever into the dark, secret world which Jennifer and the Butcher Bird shared briefly as children, only to find herself betrayed, at the very last moment, by the one person she would never have thought she would ever have reason to mistrust.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'It is nigh on forty years since the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 and the Cornish are again growing restive to shed the Tudor yoke once and for all. What will be needed, though, is a new leader, and who better to fill this role than twenty-six-year-old Customer Trago. Customer, however, is at heart a coward and wants nothing more than to be acknowledged at the Court of Henry VIII as a minor royal.'

'The role of hero is nevertheless thrust upon Customer, but not by accident, when he rides back into Cornwall. Struck down by an assassin and left for dead, his life is saved by big-hearted Eber Pendragon, innkeeper and blacksmith of Wynehouse Corner who, together with the sinister wine merchant, Nicholas Allsopp, may or may not be covertly planning to fund a fresh rebellion.

'Although aware that he is suspected by both Eber and his servant, old Agnes, of being a spy of the King, Customer reluctantly agrees to take on Eber’s defence of the charge of murder of Rebecca Trelawney, a cruelly facially-deformed deaf mute. Unfortunately for Customer, the Trelawneys rule the parish with an iron fist and no one will stand with him against them for fear of the reprisals that will surely follow.

'Customer’s troubles multiply in the form of his beautiful, but devious, former lover, the Countess Anna-Lucretia Ballini, who seeks him out to dispose of her creakingly ancient, but seriously wealthy Italian husband.

'And who is the stranger named Malachy Pawley? What does he want from Customer Trago?'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Twenty-seven-year-old Natalie Miller is struggling to come to terms with the death of her stepmother, Ellen, whom the police believe, but cannot prove, Natalie murdered. Natalie doesn’t deny that she murdered Ellen: there are terrifying blanks in her memory, things she should remember but can’t following Ellen’s highly suspicious death eighteen months ago. And then, in the space of one short week, Natalie’s life becomes even more of a nightmare. Not just for her, either, but for a disparate group of people whose paths cross hers, three of whom ultimately pay the price for it with their lives. She also suspects that she is being stalked by someone whom she feels she should know but can’t remember from where or when.'

'Abandoned by all of her friends, consumed with self-doubt and fearful of the renewed interest in her by the police following the savage murder of an elderly down-and-out whom she befriended while out jogging, Natalie nevertheless cannot rid herself of the feeling that despite everything that is going on around her – and for all of which she can find no explanation – her own life is never at risk. There is some other reason why she is being stalked; some other reason why she repeatedly finds a stranger, Miss Purple Painted Toenails – a teenager with plenty of attitude who seems to know more about Natalie than she does herself – waiting for her when she returns home from her daily early morning jogging sessions.

'Natalie has no idea why the teenager has become so determinedly involved in her life which is now spiralling rapidly out of control. She finds herself with no alternative, however, but to agree to the teenager’s typically bizarre plan to bring matters to a head, only to become even more deeply embroiled in trouble when things go disastrously wrong at the last moment.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'It had long been rumoured that there was a witches’ coven active in Little Gidding, but that was all it was, a rumour. That is until the body of the old woman widely known in the village as “the Black Widow” was discovered staked to a scarecrow and ritually burnt to death as a witch.

'It falls to the clairvoyant, Edwina Charles, and the tarot cards to prove not only the Black Widow’s connection with witchcraft and the spate of anonymous letters circulating in the village that warned, “I am the Devil’s Hand. I know your guilty secret;’ but also who murdered her and why. A further horrific ritual black magic sacrificial killing and more anonymous letters do little to help matters, not least of which is the threat to the clairvoyant’s own life.

'‘I am the Devil’s Hand,’ confessed Rosemary Linthorpe. But was she?
'The 10th Mrs Charles murder mystery, ‘The Tarot Reading’, is soon to follow.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'The tarot reading was a gift, albeit an unusual one, bearing in mind that it was supposed to be a wedding present for a young bride, and all the more so, since the giver of the gift was the bridegroom’s mother. The clairvoyant, Edwina Charles, has deep misgivings over the wisdom of the bride in accepting this gift. Mrs Charles fears that it will serve only to fan the flames of what was allegedly an accidental death in which the bride-to-be was directly involved, and which was actually widely thought to have been cold-blooded murder.'

'But then, in a bizarre twist of fate, the wrong young woman receives the gift in the mistaken belief that it was intended for her, and in accepting it, sets off a disastrous chain of events which no one, not even Mrs Charles can avert.'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Mrs Charles, the clairvoyant-detective, finds herself with not only one of the most baffling investigations of her career, but also in a race against time to prove the innocence of her brother, the eccentric Punch and Judy entertainer accused of murdering pop star Judith Caldicott…Judith’s clairvoyant, Edwina Charles, warned her repeatedly of a lurking danger in the Tarot cards, a threat from something hidden deep in the past. Judith ignored that advice – and she paid with her life!'

Source : publisher's blurb

'Rendell Maxwell Pym brutally murdered his beautiful young wife. The fact that his conviction was overturned by the Appeal Court made no difference. He was the man everyone loved to hate. Only one person, right up until the moment the last dying breath left his body, claimed he was innocent of the crime everyone believed he had committed, and that was Pym himself.

'Who, then, is carrying out his, a dead man’s, vendetta against the three prosecution witnesses who testified against him at his trial? Or is it no more than a mere coincidence that the doctor – the first of Pym’s three wise monkeys, ‘See No Evil’, who gave damning evidence of Pym’s brutality – was himself brutally murdered in a Scottish graveyard and found with his eyes taped shut?

'And what of Mr Justice Halahan – the so-called ‘Hanging Judge’ – who passed sentence on Pym? He was found hanged in his home with one of his hands taped over his good ear. Coincidence again that Pym’s second wise monkey, ‘Hear No Evil’, is now dead?

'Antonia Manners, a young private investigator, doubts it. She takes her suspicions that Pym is alive to Benjamin Bing, a prominent spiritualist healer, who advocated a controversial form of hanging as a means of treating the judge’s severe migraine headaches. Hours later, Tony, who was known to be depressed over a health issue, fell to her death from a train while thought to be journeying to Scotland to investigate the doctor’s death.

'Suicide…or murder?

'The shadowy underworld figure who employs a hint of blackmail to coerce the clairvoyant, Edwina Charles, to investigate Tony’s death, wants the truth.

'Mrs Charles is far from convinced that there is any reason to doubt the coroner’s verdict of suicide at Tony’s inquest. That is, until Pym’s third wise monkey, the detective who arrested Pym and charged him with murder, is found with his mouth taped closed.

'The question Mrs Charles has to find an answer for is this: why would Pym – if he is alive, as it would seem Tony Manners suspected – target the three wise monkeys he swore vengeance on, and not the man he claimed murdered his wife?

'In a startling dénouement, Mrs Charles finds her answer, one that leaves her no less shocked than everyone else who was involved, in one way or another, with Rendell Maxwell Pym, the wife murderer.'

Source : publisher's blurb