Minette Walters: Fox Evil

By MICHELE HEWITSON

She does good nasty folk, does Minette Walters. She's especially good at nasty folk in the guise of the neighbourhood eccentric. If you think they're a bit funny, then it's probably because they are.

Fox Evil's odd bods are a band of New Age travellers who roll into a nearly deserted Dorset village: the cottages are holiday homes; the lord and lady of the manor are old, most certainly eccentric and widely held to loathe each other. The wife, Ailsa Lockyer-Fox is found dead in the garden, dressed in her nightie on a freezing cold night, the door locked against her. Her husband, James Lockyer-Fox, is investigated. The inquest sets him free but tongues are wagging.

And why have the travellers, led by a nasty by the name of Fox Evil, come to Shenstead to squat on a piece of disputed land? How does Fox Evil know so much about the villagers, and the Lockyer-Foxes?

Nicely nasty but a bit contrived.

Allen & Unwin

$36.95