When Meredith Mitchell looks up from her foreign-service desk in London and sees her old friend Toby, back from a posting in Beijing, she is not pleased to hear him ask for a favor--not just of her but also of her fiance, Dectective Superintendent Alan Markby. Alison Jenner, a relative of Toby's, is receiving poison-pen letters referring to the death of her aunt decades before--a murder for which Alison was accused and acquitted. While Meredith and Alan think about their upcoming wedding, another murder brings the old one to the fore, and they find themselves hip deep not only in the investigation but also in the garden, country, pub, and family life of a particular English village. Granger has a winning way with color and structure, and although both characterization and plot get a bit shrill at the end, her latest is an absorbing and well-paced village mystery. GraceAnne DeCandido
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Product Description

Meredith Mitchell is delighted when an old friend from her consular days, Toby Smythe, turns up on leave between foreign postings. But Toby has a problem---or rather his relative Alison Jenner has---and Toby wants to enlist the help of Meredith's fiancé, Detective Superintendent Alan Markby. Alison has been receiving anonymous hate mail in which reference is made to a time twenty-five years earlier when she stood trial for the murder of her aunt, Freda Kemp, but was acquitted. Who is the writer, and how does he or she know about this secret in Alison's past?

Markby is reluctant to become involved, not least because Toby is hardly his favorite person. Besides, he and Meredith are planning their wedding, and distractions aren't welcome. But inquiries into a poisoned pen campaign soon turn into a murder investigation.

With the help of Inspector Jessica Campbell, a new member of Markby's team, and the non-professional but enthusiastic assistance of Meredith and Toby, the inquiry unravels a twenty-five-year-old mystery and its dreadful legacy of violence.

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