One Dark Night by Hannah Richell

 

It is Halloween. Teenage pupils from a nearby private school are partying in a wood with the name of Sally in the Wood. They have gathered around a ouija board and are endeavouring to scare themselves witless, hoping for a message from the above named Sally who, legend has it, was a young bride murdered by her husband on their wedding night when he discovered she had been unfaithful to him. Sally is said to drift through the wood in her white wedding gown, appearing at the top of an old, crumbling tower, known locally as the folly.

The following morning a girl guide troop stumble upon the dead body of a girl in a white dress at the foot of the tower. A rather delicious murder mystery story follows. Rachel is a counsellor at the school and she and her daughter, Ellie, live in a cottage in the grounds of the school which Ellie attends as a scholarship pupil. Ben, the detective assigned to be in charge of the investigation, is Rachel’s ex husband. Ben has a new partner but he and Rachel keep in close contact as they co-parent Ellie. Various suspects begin to become apparent but the red herrings are handled very smoothly and I didn’t guess who the culprit was, which is exactly how I like my mystery stories.

7

I prefer books to be written in the past tense but this is just a little niggle in an otherwise most enjoyable novel, and I’m going to look out for Hannah Richell’s other books now.

Published by Simon & Schuster