Before reading this book make sure you find yourself a time and place where you will not be disturbed. It is a completely satisfying, utterly absorbing murder mystery set against the background of a private boarding school in Rural Norfolk.
Detective Inspector Jazz Hunter has escaped London intent on leaving the police force and living the quiet life, renovating her newly acquired cottage and indulging her passion for painting. Jazz’s new plan is ticking along nicely until she is asked to look into a suspicious death at Fleat House in St Stephen’s school and she suddenly finds herself back with her colleague DS Miles attempting to unravel a mystery which involves past happenings at the school and their links to the present.
Jazz is trying to leave her own unhappy past behind and her personal story adds to the enjoyment of reading this book. It has everything you need in a top class murder mystery including brilliant character development in all the side stories. There is even a little teaser in there, hinting at a possible change in Jazz’s future. It could have been the start of a terrific series.
Very sadly, Lucinda Riley died in June 2021 before this novel was published. Her eldest son, Harry Whitaker, has written a loving foreword in which he says he is sure Lucinda would have wanted to edit and update the manuscript, having written it in 2006 when Harry was just thirteen, but he took the decision to leave it as it was, wanting to preserve her voice. It is an outstanding crime novel and, along with all of her other best selling books, leaves a proud and wonderful legacy for her family.
Published by Macmillan
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